Mass Effect: Jumped In
by Juu50x
Summary: Sharia T'Sumi is a ordinary C-Sec detective, but things soon change when she encounters a quarian with information about Specter Saren going rogue. And soon finds herself inside a Alliance vessel calle Normandy. FemShep/Liara. Mass Effect AU
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**A/N: Sorry if my OC's names suck, but I'm not really good with name ideas.  
**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**Chapter 1**

**Just A Regular Day.**

**Not!**

Citadel. Home of the galactic community. Many first timers would think that it is a perfect place which had almost no crime and everything was safe. But things aren't that simple, there were always some crazy bastard there with a murder in his/hers mind, someone with a ego size of a planet or just some thieves. Sharia T'Sumi was no stranger to these.

But after living about century on the station and about half-century working with C-Sec. You somewhat get used to it after living that long. But even though Citadel had these kinds of problems, they were always taken care of. In way or another.

Sharia looked at the moving transporters that levitated above her, carrying various people to various locations around the Citadel. She really enjoyed the watching the station through the Wards. The feeling seeing the Citadel and the space around it gave her somewhat, calming feelings.

"Sharia! Stop day dreaming!" Sharia almost jumped out of her seat when a turian named Garand, also working in C-Sec as a detective. "Damn it Garand! You are sitting right next to me!" she yelled back. "No need to make me deaf!"

The turian snorted at this as he returned back to surveillance the "traffic". "You do know what I think about this whole 'make sure that everything is alright' surveillance." Sharia complained, while doing poor expression of Palin. "Please, don't try to give more reasons to Palin why he should fire you." Garand sighted.

Sharia gave Garand a bored look. That told him that she didn't care that much. "Maybe this is one his ways to make sure that I do something like this, so he can fire my sorry purple ass." she mumbled.

"Please, don't start this." Garand sighted. He looked at the beeping meter, which showed that everything was still the same. Truth to be told, they had been here all day and nothing much have been happened. "Okay, what you say if stay here for couple more minutes and then head off?" Garand suggested. Sharia raised an "eyebrow" at this. "What's the sudden change?" she asked.

"Truth to be told, we've been here all day and nothing has happened. I'm sure Palin can find some other people to do this." Garand explained. Sharia smiled at this. It was so far the best idea in the whole day. "Okay and after that, we will hit Flux!" Sharia now sounded little excited.

Garand simply face palmed at this. "Sharia, you can't do this every time when you are off duty, you sure can do lot of more than just waist most of your time at night clubs." Sharia simply just shrugged. "Oh, sorry if I wanted have fun times…" Sharia didn't finish her rant when her Omni-tool beeped. "Now who that might be?" she wondered, but she already had a guess who it might be.

She activated her Omni-tool and saw rather familiar name on it. "What is it Palin?" she asked, as activating her communications. "_**Sharia, I need you back at C-Sec Academy. There is a 'new comer' and you need to question her.**_"

Sharia sighted at this, she could already tell that the "new comer" was no other than quarian. She sometimes couldn't understand what people were thinking. Sure the quarians broke the rules of the Citadel by creating the Geth. But that was three centuries ago! And in her opinion, the quarians had suffered already a lot!

"And why you need me?"

"_**Since you've been somewhat dealing with them, you might get something out of her.**_" Palin explained. "_**So, hurry up! And if you excuse me, I must be heading towards the Council Tower. Palin out.**_" the communications then went dead.

Sharia sighted while Garand looked at interested. "So, what did Palin wanted?" he asked. "Palin wants me to return back to C-Sec, to question this one quarian that had arrived." Sharia explained. "So, would you take us to C-Sec right away?" she asked little impatiently.

"Sure, sure." he said. Soon they were on their way to the C-Sec Academy.

* * *

_C-Sec Academy._

Sharia walked in the halls of C-Sec Academy, which was crowed as always. As she walked, she started hearing loud noises. "… you don't know what fun you might miss. I'm sure we can get this little 'misunderstanding' out of the way, if you would take my offer."

"There is no way in hell I'm 'going out' with you!" a feminine voice yelled back. Sharia could already tell from the accent, that this was their new quarian on the Citadel. The problem was that she had run into Derios Tallun, a turian who usually tried to "hit" almost every single female species he came a cross with. Human, asari, quarian and more. Although, Sharia hadn't seen Derios trying to hit on any krogan females. Now that would've been a sight to see and laugh about it later at Derios's face.

She soon arrived at the corridor, where a turian wearing a red lined marks all over his face and a quarian with dark purple/white enviro-suit. And judging by the body language and the voice tone, the quarian was little pissed.

"Back off Derios! You heard the lady!" Sharia said, pushing the turian away. "Should have known that Palin would send you here Sharia." Derios spat. "Get out of here!" Sharia said, pushing the turian away. Who muttered something about "… gona make you pay." but Sharia ignored that.

"Sorry about that." she now turned to quarian. "So, would you follow me to the interrogation room miss…?" that seem to make quarian pay little more attention to her. "Of course. And my name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. But you can just call me Tali."

"Sure Tali. I am Detective Sharia T'Sumi, but you can just call me Sharia." Sharia smiled. Wanting to make the quarian feel little comfortable. "Uh, sure Sharia." Tali sounded little still unsure. "And I must apologize about Derios, he act usually like that when seeing 'fresh meat' on the Citadel." Sharia explained, as they entered the room.

"It's okay, and thanks for getting rid of him." Tali said. "Sorry that I bring this up, but what exactly did he meant 'getting little misunderstanding out of the way'?" to this Tali snorted. "I just accidentally bumped into him and started accusing me of assaulting!" Sharia almost felt like face palming, how can Derios pull these kinds of things? Then again who would people believe more, a harassing C-Sec Officer or a newly arrived quarian?

"And after the other Officers came and had small argument, they took my Omni-tool and my weapons." Tali explained in annoyance. Sharia nodded at this. "I try to get them back to you after this is over. Does that fit for you?" Sharia asked as she sited herself. Activating her console, sending a message to make sure Tali would get her belongings back after their interrogation. "Alright." Sharia said, while pointing Tali to sit. "Let us being."

* * *

_Later…_

The interrogation had went rather well, the quarian answered all of her questions without any trouble and acquired her belongings after that back. After that, she decided to head for the changing rooms. Since Palin hadn't said that there could be anything else for her, she decided to call it for a day.

As she changed her regular C-Sec uniform, she heard some grunting on the closet to her left. "Damn it! Why won't you open!" the voice sounded little too familiar. "I should've knew this was too easy." as Sharia was getting closer, she heard some typing. She soon recognized the voice belonged to Derios.

"That damn quarian sure is careful." he muttered. Now this started smell suspicious. She quickly went to the door and forcefully opened it. Finding Derios inside, with his Omni-tool activated and some encrypted text running down.

"Okay, what the hell are you doing here Derios?" she asked, while mostly looking at his Omni-tool. "That's not your concern." he said, trying to sound casual. Sharia, decided to play a different game and see what Derios would try to do to cover himself.

So far it didn't look like he was showing any sights that she had heard him muttering something about the quarian. "Oh really?" she asked. Crossing her arms. "Then what are exactly doing here, of all places?" she, then tilted her head. Trying to look like she had no idea why he was here.

Derios sighted annoyed. "I was trying to open up this one file that we got from this gang while back." Derios explained. "Then why trying open that encrypted file, here of all places?" she spread her arms to make the point. Derios looked around, as if trying to see if there was anyone else listening or there was some sort of listening device was attached somewhere.

"I… I took this thing without permission. And thought that I should find a place where nobody wouldn't figure out to get me immediately." Derios explained. "And why sudden change of heart?" she asked in not believing tone.

"Uuuuh…" now she could see Derios was getting little nervous. As he again looked around, but this time little more hastily. Sharia decided to see if Derios would do what she was thinking. "You know what, forget it." she said with a sight. And started leaving. She hadn't reached far when she heard, Derios getting up and possibly drawing some kind of knife and quickly charged at her.

He knew that she knew what he was doing and needed to get her out of the way. After he would be finished with that damn file and other task, he would leave Citadel fast as possible. Since they would surely connect him and finding out what he's been up to. He just hoped that his boss would be generous as he said and make him disappear.

But before he knew, he was hauled at the rooms wall with powerful Biotic punch. The impact was hard enough to paralyze him for a short moment. But that was enough for Sharia as she lifted Derios up in the air and smashed him on ceilling, but not too hard that he might die. She then dropped him on the floor, unconscious.

"Now, let's see what you tried to open." she said, with a small playful smile on her face. She activated her Omni-tool and started hacking Derios's. It was rather hard work, he had dozens of fire walls and few other counter measures for hacking, but Sharia made it through.

After a long search, she found the possible file he had tried to open. She quickly proceeded to download it and then deleted it from Derios's Omni-tool. Sharia then quickly went back to her locker and changed her regular clothing back to her C-Sec clothing. She then locked Derios into closet. Making sure he wouldn't be able to escape any time soon.

She then started working on her Omni-tool while starting looking for the closest elevator. After a while her radio activated and before the person on the other side was able to talk, Sharia interrupted him. "Hey Chellick! I need you to sent someone to get Derios for interrogation!"

"_**Sharia what are babbling about? And did you really have call me? I'm in a middle of investigation.**_" Checllick said annoyed. "You already heard me, I locked Derios in one of the closet's in the changing rooms. And I also need found out, where the quarian we held while ago went!" Sharia explained with rather raised voice.

There was long pause before Checllick answered back. "_**Don't start screaming, it doesn't do good for my hearing!**_" Checllikc snapped. "Only if you do what I just said! Please?"

"_**Okay, okay. I'll call someone to take a look on Derios and I'll quickly check the security cams.**_" Checllikc sighted. "Thanks." Sharia said, like nothing had happened between them.

She finally reached an elevator, had to wait for it to come down. "_Goddess, I HATE those elevators!_" Sharia thought. After waiting about few minutes the elevator finally arrived. "_Now I have to wait a bit longer…_" she grunted.

As the elevator ascended, Sharias radio opened. "_**All right, I've sent some people to get Derios into custody and it looks like your quarian friend walked circles around the Presidium for a while and then seemed to receive a call after that, she took a cabin for the Wards.**_" Checkllikc said with little bored expression. "_**From that I lost her, but I try to locate her best I can.**_"

"Okay, thanks. I owe you." Sharia said with a smile. "_**You sure ARE!**_" Checllikc snapped before cutting the connection. "He sure has a temper." Sharia mumbled. "**In other news, a human colony Eden Prime was heavily attacked by Geth forces, who hadn't appeared outside the Veil in three centuries.**" Sharia froze at this. "**Although, it has been reported that the Geth forces have been pulled off. We are looking forward to gather more information on the matter later.**"

This was getting weird. A quarian shows up and Derios steals something from her Omni-tool. And it looks like there was a Geth attack sometime ago. What a interesting coincidence. The elevator _finally _reached her destination. She then started running towards the closest cabin she could find.

"_**Okay, it looks like she is heading towards Markets, I'm not sure what she is looking for there, but I suggest you take a look.**_" Checliikc said. "_**That's all I can do for you.**_"

"Thanks again, Checkllikc." Sharia said as she was finally able to catch a cabin. "Where would like to go?" a human driver asked. "To the Markets." she simply said. "And make _fast_. C-Sec business."

Drivers expression soon changed into shocked one. He simply nodded as the asari stepped inside and activated her Omni-tool. "_A quit look wouldn't hurt anyone._" she thought. "_And the way will be a long one._" she sighted. The file sure was one hard piece to crack.

"_The quarian's sure a one heck of a mechanics._" Sharia thought. The whole file was well encrypted. But she _might _be able to crack it, but wouldn't but Tali would need explain few things for her. Now she little understood why the quarian had been little nervous and little "protective" of her belongings. After a while, it she got something out from it. The file looked like some sort of audio file. "_Probably having something to do with the Geth…_" she thought.

* * *

_Soon at the Markets._

After Sharia had discovered that file was some sort of audio message, she had let file being alone, sine it was sure that the quarian will answer to her. But now she needed to find her, which wouldn't be hard since there aren't many quarians at Markets. And she might recognize her, from her armor colors. After a while searching and finding nothing Sharia had asked if anyone had seen a quarian who might look like she was in a hurry.

After maybe forty minutes of searching she finally found some sort of clue. Some volus merchant had said that he saw a quarian heading towards storage room of "Morzza's Weapon Store".

Luckily it was only few minutes away. And when she reached the Stores backside she could already see the quarian about to enter. "Hey, hold on!" she yelled. That got quarian's attention immediately.

"Oh, Detective T'Sumi." Tali said, sounding really nervous. "What are you doing here?"

Sharia soon was with Tali, looking at her sharply. "Well, firstly I'm here to return something that might belong to you." she said. Activating her Omni-tool. "You mean…?" Tali asked. Not knowing how to say it. "… some strange audio file that might have something to do with the Geth? Yeap, that's the one." Sharia said, smirking.

Tali was right now shocked. She had hoped that no one would found out about it until she would be able to speak with the Shadow Broker. Somehow the info about her obtaining important information about the Geth attack on Eden Prime seem to spread fast. Tali inwardly slapped herself and quickly composing herself.

"How… how you did you found it out? Did someone tell you about it?" she asked, sounding little frightened. She was actually ready to use her shotgun, if the Detective has other plans in her mind.

"Just thought about it after hearing small news report about the attack." Sharia shrugged. "Oh, that gave you the idea?" Tali asked carefully. "Yeah. And if you are wondering, Derios was the one who stole your little file from your Omni-tool." Sharia explained. Expecting Tali to think that she was the one stole the file from her.

Tali looked at Sharia little confused, who seemed to noticed it from quarian's white eyes. "The asshole who flirted with you before I chased him off." Sharia explained. Now Tali remembered. "So, what would you say if we go back to C-Sec and talk about this." Sharia said. And it wasn't actually request.

Now Tali started feeling uncomfortable. It was already strange that someone from the Shadow Broker was going to meet her, even though she didn't have information about the Geth or Saren. And now the asari Detective was forcing her to return back to C-Sec, in where she might into trouble.

"No, I can't…" she wasn't able to finish, when she was all of sudden pushed away. "GET DOWN!" the next thing she heard was a gun shot, a bullet piercing flesh, people screaming and Sharia activating her Biotics.

Soon a body of a salarian dropped between them. "Let's get out of here!" she was soon grabbed by her arm and she soon found herself running through the crowds. "You are hurt!"

"It's OK." Sharia said. Wincing while she put her right hand on her wound around her hips. But pain started making running rather difficult and she found herself few times almost falling. "Could you help me a little?" she asked.

Tali already knew what to do and placed her hand around Sharia's back while she placed her left hand around her neck. "We need to patch this wound!" Sharia panted. "Luckily I know a place where to go!"

* * *

**Well, I hope you liked the first chapter. The second one might not come up until December. But maybe then you'll get a double update, you never know. And I know there are like bazillion Tali/OC stories out there, but give this some kind of chance since this OC isn't actually human teenager from parallel dimension in which this universe is just a video game. Still trying to figure out HOW I came up with this…**

**So tell what you think so… REVIEW please! And constructive criticism is welcome! Flames, STAY AWAY! Unless they are part of the constructive criticism.**

**Till next time, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**A/N: Since I didn't give fully description about what Sharia looked like, here is the best description I can give ya. As said, she has purple skin and white straight lines on her head tentacles (or what ever you call them) and cyan colored eyes, because of her second parent.**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**Chapter 2**

**Get The Info!**

_Somewhere around Markets._

Sharia started feeling dizzy. She had lost lot of blood. Many people were looking at them with strange looks, since it wasn't everyday you see a quarian helping out an injured asari C-Sec Detective. "Are you still with me?" Tali asked. Making sure Sharia was still conscious. "Yeah…" Sharia weakly replied, her face already little pale. "Besides, I've had it worse." she said with humor in her voice.

Tali wasn't exactly sure what to say to that. But the wound looked really bad. And Sharia hadn't wore any kinds of armor that would've got protected her. Neither she got any kinds of shields. And now she was bleeding to death, because of her. When she got that information about Saren and the Geth, she knew that she just got herself into trouble.

But now even by passers were paying for it. She needs to end this quickly! She didn't wish to have any kinds of deaths in her hands. "I… I'm sorry I had to drag you into this mess." Tali apologized. Sharia couldn't help but give a small grin. "Heh, it's okay." she said.

"I think, I've dealt with these kinds of things before." she said weakly. "But it would nice to know why someone would go this far just to get you? What's important about that file?" she asked. She could feel Tali's body becoming little tense when mentioning it.

"What if we talk about it once we've got you patched up?" she asked nervously. "And, I don't think it would be wise to talk about it, in middle of the crow." Tali pointed out. That was fine with her. And it wasn't mostly a good idea having a conversation about some audio file that people seem want so badly that they were ready to kill for it.

And since most of the people were looking at them the whole and she didn't blame them. They finally were reaching the clinic, but the blood loss was already affecting Sharia's ability to walk. And that made Tali's work for keeping her up little harder. "My head is all spinning." Sharia mumbled. "Just hold on little longer Detective." Tali breathed now little heavily because of all that weight.

"Sharia! Oh God, what happened to you!" Dr. Chloe Michel gasped, seeing a bloodied asari, holding her hand on her side while leaning on a quarian. "Some salarian bastard almost got this quarian here, but I thought little differently and took her place." Sharia laughed weakly while pointing with her head at Tali. "Urgh!" she tightened her hand around her side little harder.

Chloe soon got over her shock and instructed Tali. "Bring her on that table!" she pointed. Tali and Sharia quickly went to the back of the room and placed Sharia carefully on the table. She winced a little when she tried to settle down. "Sheesh it hurts! It much have punched through!" Sharia said, gritting through her teeth.

"Just try to stay calm." Tali tried to ease Sharia a little. "Doc! Can we start already!" Sharia asked impatiently. "Yes, Sharia." She came back with some medi-gel and equipments, which would be sealing the wound.

"Okay, I need you… uuum, what's your name?" she asked Tali. "My name is Tali'Zor…"

"Can we take the introductions little later please?" bothe Tali and Chloe looked at Sharia. "Okay." Chloe took a deep breath before, looking at Tali. "Tali is it?" she quickly asked. "I need you to keep the wound from bleeding." she then gave Tali few towels. "Keep them on her sides back side, while I deal with the front." Tali nodded. "Sharia?" Chloe asked.

She nodded and changed her position. She flinched when she felt a soft fabric pressed on her side. "You got lucky Sharia." Chloe said, while inspecting Sharia's front side. "I suspect that you moved, when you got shot?"

"Oh yes, I just stood there took the bullet." Sharia said. Rolling her eyes. "No, I jumped away, while it hit me. Why?" she asked. She then hissed in pain, when Doctor started filling the wound with medi-gel. "You were rather lucky. The bullet didn't exactly went fully through you when you jumped out of the way." she explained.

"Just being lucky." Sharia chuckled. "Alright, I'm done. Thank you for your assistance Tali." Chloe thanked. "You can go and wait until I finish with the other side, then I'll check out you." Tali simply nodded and went to the back of the room.

She had the feeling that, whoever was chasing her was probably right now following Sharia's blood trail. She activated her Omni-tool and gave one long look at the file. "_All this trouble, just because what I know._" she thought sadly. She needed to get out of here fast!

While Tali was grieving over the matter and Chloe was dealing with Sharia. Sharia was inspecting Tali, the quarian by the look of her body language was distressed and she didn't blame her. If she would in same situation in her younger years, she might be also lost, confused and completely depressed if she was still in her early Maiden years.

She closed her eyes and hissed in pain when Doctor started closing her wound. "Grow up Sharia, it shouldn't hurt anymore." Chloe tried to make Sharia's condition little better. "Yeah, yeah, but I can't help it!" Shaira said dryly.

While both of them were "talking", Tali had left quickly. When she had reached the streets she quickly contacted Fist. She waited for a moment before a grumpy voice filled her helmet. "_**Yes, what is it?**_" he asked, sounding rather busy. "I've have the file with me. I was able to recover it, although there were few obstacles." Tali explained.

"_**You do have it? Do you? I really hope that you aren't wasting my time by figuring out later that you have a fake file.**_"

"Don't worry I have the right one." Tali reassured, but she was still doubting little. "_**Good, then come to my office, so we can discuss.**_" Fist said before cutting their connection. Now she would be able to get rid off this accursed file and maybe then get back to her Pilgrimage. She quickly glanced around, trying to see if anyone was following her. She then started moving towards Chora's Den.

After awhile of walking, Tali finally reached the Den. She once again looked around looking for any kinds of suspicious movement. After what she experienced behind the Morzza's Weapon Store she knew how much she was in danger. "_Here goes nothing._"

* * *

_Back at the Med Clinic_

Sharia cursed her luck, just when this whole thing could be settled, the quarian decided to ran away with possible vital information! This sure wasn't her day. And she would call for help, but it looked like her communicator was busted. "That damn assassin must've busted my radio." she said.

Sharia then turned her gaze to Chloe "Do you have any idea where our quarian friend might've been gone?" she asked. She knew this was rather poor attempt, but if she had at least anything it was better than nothing. "I… I might've have some idea where she went." Chloe said, sounding rather unsure if she should answer.

"Well what is it? I don't either we or Tali have much time." Sharia said, trying to make Chloe hurry it up what she tried to say. "I… I… I have a feeling that she… might be heading towards Chora's Den." Chloe said. Sharia's eyes went wide, since she knew _who _was the boss of that place and she knew his reputation. "Your kidding right?" she asked, disbelieve in her voice.

"No." Chloe sighted. "No, I'm not."

"Why would she go got Fist? Does she have a death wish?" Sharia asked, here eyes little wide. "Well not really." Chloe said, now massaging her neck nervously. "I've heard a rumor that he has _some_ connections to this person, who they call "Shadow Broker" if I remember correctly."

It seemed like Chloe had not much of idea who the Shadow Broker was. But Sharia had too much. "Oh Goddess…" she placed her forehead on her hand. This was worse than she thought, if Shadow Broker was after her and that file, things might turn ugly really fast.

"Do you have any kinds of different clothing?" Sharia asked. "I don't want to raise any kinds of suspicious in this outfit." she said, pointing at her C-Sec uniform and the gapping holes on her side. "I think I have some spare clothing…" Chloe trailed off as looking for some perfect looking cloths for Sharia.

While Sharia waited Chloe to find some kinds of clothing to her, she couldn't help but wonder how the quarian, Tali was fairing. After all she hadn't no idea where she was getting into. Both the quarian and her files needed to get back to safety. And fast!

* * *

_Chora's Den._

Tali was nervous, the very moment she had set foot on this club some krogan had come to her and told her to go to straight to the other side of the club. She had obeyed. When she entered Fist's office, she got a strong feeling in her guts that this might be a bad idea. "_Too late to regret._" she thought. After all she was already this far.

"So you are the quarian that had some information about Specter Saren?" Fist got up from his chair and leaned with his hands onto his desk. Tali nodded at this, mostly because she had all of sudden lost her voice. "And you only wish to share this piece of information only to Shadow Broker himself?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Y… yes that is correct." Tali said. Finding her voice and trying to sound bit confident. Fist eyed her for a good time before taking leaving his desk and walking right front of Tali. Now that he was standing right before her, she noticed just how tall he was.

Her own head reached his throat barely. She fought off a sudden urge to gulp loudly and remained her compose. Fist eyed her little more before turning his back to her. "Well, you got lucky." he said. "I've contacted the Broker and he should be here at the Citadel very soon."

Tali's shoulders slumped from relief. Now this whole madness could end! "So, where do I meet him?" she asked, tilting her head a little. Fist turned to her with a small smile on his lips. "He will meet you at the alley of the Markets."

Now Tali got little suspicious, even her face showed it, even if she was wearing a mask, the suspicious was shown through her eyes. "Why such place?"

Fist made short laugh at this. "You really think the biggest information Broker in the Galaxy is going to appear middle of crowded streets of Citadel?" he asked amused, still laughing slightly. Tali thought about it for a moment, but couldn't find anything to say back.

"I guess not…" she said, almost like to herself. Fist nodded at this. "Alright then." he then headed back to her desk. "I guess, you know where you have to go. And now if you'll excuse me, I must continue my own business." he sited himself on his chair. "Hope we can make more business together in the future."

That statement sent shivers down Tali's spine for some reason. Then again, this whole meeting had been… strange. She would've expected the Shadow Broker to be here. But now it was little too late to change things, she needed to get moving.

She soon found herself out of Fist's office and back in the club. And the fist thing that greeted her were the asari dancers. She couldn't help but notice they seem to intrigued her, there was always something catching in their moves, almost hypnotizing and little exotic. Her face then felt little warm, when she released where her thoughts were taking her.

"_Keelah, __I need to spend less time in these kinds clubs._" she shock her head. She quickly took off from the club and headed towards the alley where she needed to meet the Broker. But when the exited Chora's Den she started to have a feeling that someone was following her. She looked few times around, but not seeing anybody. "_Must be my nerves…_"

She had now reached the stairs that took to the alley, she looked around again trying to see if anyone was following her, but saw no one. Rest of the walk was really nervous one. The whole place was just too perfect for some kind of ambush and the whole hallway was rather narrow, not much room for perfect cover if someone came down with guns blazing.

"You really like to take things on the hard way eh?" Tali jumped at this and turned around with her shotgun on her hands. "Wow! Calm down Tali! It's just me!" the asari yelled. "Sharia!" Tali looked at the standing asari before her.

She wasn't wearing her C-Sec uniform, but white long sleeved shirt with red sleeves and gray pants. "What are you doing here?" she asked, lowering her shotgun a little, still prepared for any kinds of surprises. "Well it should be obvious." Sharia said with annoyed tone. "You left before I could bring you safety to the C-Sec. Do you release that running away from a C-Sec officers is not a good thing?"

Tali simply stared at her, not knowing what to say at this. "And further more, what the hell makes you go to straight to the one of the crimes bosses of the Citadel?" she asked. Raising her eyebrow. Tali felt unconformable around Detective T'Sumi now, with the hard stare she had on her eyes.

"I… I…" she knew there was no way getting out of this, unless… "_NO! I won't resolve on that!_" Tali sighted slightly, her shoulder dropped from the disappointment. "I came to him because I was told to." she explained. Her head now lowered. Mostly trying to avoid Detectives hard stare and maybe also because she now felt little ashamed.

"And why is that?" she asked. Crossing her arms. Tali raised her head, now facing the Detective. "Because, I'm going to me…" Tali didn't finish what she was about to say, because she noticed few people walking towards her. One was a turian and two others were salarians. Sharia turned her head, also seeing the sight. "Friends of yours?" Tali didn't answer, since she didn't know what to do. Was _this _the Shadow Broker, or was he hiding somewhere else?

She started walking slowly towards the turian, who strangely wore a helmet that covered his face. "Are you the Shadow Broker?" she asked fast and quietly, trying to hide her question from the Detective. "What? The Shadow Broker!" which didn't work.

"You were suppose to be alone." turian hissed. Tali glanced at Sharia nervously. "Yes, well you see, I had little…"

"It doesn't matter, we're not going to leave any kinds of witnesses." Tali felt like her stomach was filled with millions of little insects flying inside of it. But she then started feel even more nervous and even scared when Sharia opened her mouth. "Derios?" she asked, her face was filled with shock. "I knew you had dirty hands, but I did not have any idea just _how _dirty they were."

"Well, live is full of surprises my dear Sharia." Derios chuckled. Taking off his helmet, revealing his red colored face, which was now also little bruised. "And I doubt your long asari live will last that long." he said, while taking out Assault Rifle. "You see, we are here to make sure that _either_ of you are making out here alive." his voice was filled with delight.

"But, what about the Sha…" Tali asked, but Derios interrupted her. "The Shadow Broker isn't even here! He doesn't even know about this little meeting! Well, maybe later" he added. Sounding little amused.

"Well, I've heard enough!" Sharia yelled, while activating her Biotics. She quickly pushed Derios towards the stairway, while Tali quickly took one of the grenades and threw it at the salarians. The grenade exploded, sending the salarians right at the end of the stairs.

Sharia quickly made a Singularity right in the middle of the two. She saw as the two floated around and when one of the salarians hit right in the middle of the Singularity. She could hear clearly as every bone cracked when the miniature black hole sucked the poor salarian inside of it. Sharia cringed at the sight when, twisted body of salarian dropped on the floor.

The other salarian was also laying on the floor, but neither he was breathing. Since he had bullet holes on his chest and head. Derios quickly got himself up and didn't look that much happier. "Did you really thought I would come this unprepared? Hit it boys!" he yelled. Right behind him came three krogans two more turians.

"Oh son of a…" Sharia quickly went behind the corner with Tali, dodging two Carnage shots. Sharia winced when her side started protesting. "_Doc might've said that I needed to take these kinds of things little more carefully…_" she thought, forgetting the small pain on her side.

"Hey Tali, I don't think you could borrow me your pistol?" Sharia asked. Tali looked at her and Sharia could see that the quarian was uncertain if to give her any kinds of weapons. "Listen, we are both in this problem and I doubt we have any chances to leave here alive if you won't accept my help." Sharia reasoned.

"Alright." Tali nooded and took her pistol and handed it to Sharia. "Thanks." Sharia gave her a nice smile before, quickly glanced form the corner. She then brought out her newly acquired pistol and shot few shots. While Tali came behind her, crouching and firing with her own shotgun. Their shots were seeing clearly when hitting on their shields.

They both then turned back to the corner, waiting for another chance for attacking. Sharia quickly then started moving towards the end of the corner, but Tali all of sudden stopped her. "Let me take care of this." She said, pushing Sharia out of the way. "On my mark, you will start shooting at the krogan on the right." Tali quickly explained before going back to the "battlefield".

Sharia saw Tali firing few shots before using her Overload. "_Clever girl._" she thought with a smile. "Shields down!" the krogan yelled. "Now!" Tali yelled while giving some cover for Sharia. She went right behind Tali and started shooting over her shoulders at the krogan.

Orange blood splattered around the hallway when bullets hit their target, but they didn't seem to slow it down. Only making the adult krogan angrier. Sharia decided to give them even little time to think a new plan, so she quickly used her Biotics and lifting the three krogans in the air.

They then returned to their cover. But as they were making the next attack, they heard few more guns shooting. "More of these bastards!" Sharia screamed angrily. But her thoughts were thrown off when she and Tali heard various screams from pain. They both quickly looked from their cover, only to see three humans, a turian and rather old looking krogan fighting off Derios's goons.

"Guess our situation has changed a bit." Tali said before Sharia could. She simply nodded at this. "So, interested to join?" she asked, giving Tali big smile. Who gave her a short look before letting out a playful chuckle. Sharia found it rather cute. "_Where the heck did that come from?_"

She quickly shook off the thought and joined the fight. She immediately went after Derios, who seemed to forget two of them. She then activated her Biotics and prepared for another Biotic enchantment punch. Derios felt a hand connecting on back of his head before he knew, his neck cracked and made hit his face hard on the stairs. That kind of pressure was too much of the turian, which was fast death for him.

She then lifted the two turians in the air, where they were picked off by the humans and the krogan, while Tali and the turian who Sharia now recognized as Garrus Vakarian.

Now that the danger was over, Sharia had a chance to take deep breath. "Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!" Tali said angrily. Putting away her shotgun away. "Are you two okay?" red headed human female asked. "I guess." Tali said quickly glancing at Sharia, who nodded back, while slightly holding her side.

"Guess that means yes." human said. "Who are you?" Tali asked, while eyeing everybody. "I'm Commander Juliana Shepard of the Alliance." The Commander introduced herself. "My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." Tali pointed herself. "And this is…" she turned to Sharia.

"Detective Sharia T'Sumi of the C-Sec. Nice to meet you Commander." Sharia said while offering her hand for a shake. In which Shepard responded. "And I can see you've already made acquaints with Detective Vakarian." Sharia laughed a bit.

"Just happen to cross paths with him." Shepard joked. Sharia also made a small laugh, before getting serious. "What about Fist? I doubt he will let us just go just like that." Sharia said.

"Don't worry. He won't be a problem anymore." the Commander reassured them. The old krogan laughed at this. "We'll have to see if he is able to do anything without a head." Sharia didn't know exactly what to say to that, but her face might have told them. "I… I see. Guess, we both have another reason to be thankful to you Commander." Tali nodded at this.

Tali then spoke towards the Commander. "I have a feeling that you here because of what I know?" Commander nodded at this. "I'm trying to prove that Saren is a traitor, but the Council needed proofs." Sharia crossed her hands at this. "Then I guess I have a chance to repay you for saving our lives."

"I believe I agree with Tali on this." Sharia said, walking closer the duo. "But I think, we might need to move to a little "secured" location." she pointed out. Shepard nodded at this. "The ambassador's office would be secured enough." the human female, with pink armor said to this. Everybody nodded at this and started moving, while Tali and Sharia followed them.

As they walked away, from the scene Garrus walked behind Sharia and kneeled enough for being on her heads level "I must say Sharia, that you really have a talent of finding yourself in these kinds of situation." Garrus chuckled. Sharia just sent Garrus a playful smile. "I can't help it if I find myself in theses situation, they seem to find me." Sharia laughed a bit.

* * *

**Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It wasn't easy to write, but thankfully I didn't have to change anything while writing this. And don't forget to review/comment. And constructive criticism is welcome. And no flames unless they are part of the criticism.**

**And, check out my little poll about my stories!**

**Till next time! THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**Chapter 3**

**The Normandy**

_The Human Embassies._

"You are not making my live easy Shepard." the human ambassador, shook his head sounding really irritated. And already Sharia could tell that she was going to dislike this human a lot. He was almost like Palin. "Firefights in the Wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den?"

"_He is like a human version of Palin!_" Sharia laughed inwardly, but was also annoyed by the ambassadors rant. "Do you have any ideas how many…?" The ambassador stopped his rant, when noticing the small group of people entering in office.

"Mind telling me why you have small group of armed aliens inside my office?" he asked. Voice really strict. "Maybe it's a take over." the krogan, whose name Sharia had learned was Urdnot Wrex said, with humoring voice. But the ambassador wasn't amused.

"I think I have something that might make your day Udina." Shepard said. Ignoring ambassador Udina's comment about group of aliens with her. She then gave a glance towards Tali, which made the ambassador's and another humans attention on her.

"What you mean Shepard? What's this quarian have to do with anything?" he asked. And Sharia could see from Tali's body language that she was becoming rather annoyed with the ambassador talking about her like she wasn't even a person.

Shepard looked like she also disliked how ambassador talked about Tali. "She has proofs about Saren." Shepard put it simply. Now ambassadors facial expression changed and his voice to more polite. "Maybe you better start from the beginning miss…?"

"_And now he's being polite._" Sharia snorted. "_A typical politician._"

"My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." Tali tried to explain her further, but Udina beat to her and started asking her, why she was away from flotilla. Tali started walking little around the room, explaining about her Pilgrimage. "What's this Pilgrimage?" Shepard asked.

Tali then gave them a quickly explanation, how Pilgrimage was a way to help their fleet and making new discoveries and so on. Soon Tali changed the subject. "During my travels I began hearing reports of the Geth." Tali explained. "Ever since they drove my people away into exile. After that they've never left the Veil. Until now. And I got curious."

"And then what?" Shepard asked before Sharia could. Tali then started explaining how she had followed a patrol of Geth to a uncharted world, where she ambushed a lonely Geth that got separated from it's group and disabled it. "Wait!" Sharia interrupted. "How does that work? I've heard that the Geth tend to fry their memory cores once they are finished?"

"My people created the Geth, so it wasn't that hard. You just need the right equipments and lot of luck." Tali said, sounding slightly proud of herself. "Can you show us what you found?" Shepard asked.

Tali nodded and activated her Omni-tool and a familiar file popped out. Sharia still couldn't believe, such how much trouble the file had caused. Tali then tapped few buttons and the file opened itself and familiar voice that Sharia had heard few times.

"_**Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit.**_" Saren's cold voice said. That seemed get lot of attention from the dark skinned human, who Sharia guessed was some sort of commanding officer of some Alliance vessel.

As the humans went on about how they could proof now that Saren was a traitor, but Tali cut in. Saying there was someone else with Saren, which was a surprise to everyone. Tali tapped her Omni-tool again and a voice. Woman's voice this time talked. "_**And one step closer to the return of the Reapers.**_"

"I don't recognize that other voice." the ambassador said. "The one talking about the Reapers."

"I might know." Sharia blurted out. Now everyone's eyes on her, she felt little uncomfortable. "Well, what can you tell?" the ambassador asked. Sharia looked around before answering. "As I said, I might know." Sharia said awkwardly. "She is rather well known in asari community. Se is an asari Matriarch called Benezia."

Nobody said anything, but they all were thinking about this newly acquired information. "The name doesn't sound familiar." the ambassador said. "But what about these 'Reapers' this Benezia mentioned?" the dark skinned human said.

"Where've I heard this name…?" Shepard pondered. "According to the memory core, the Reapers were hyper-advanced machine race that existed fifty thousand years ago." Tali explained. "The Reapers hunted down the Protheans to the extinction and then they vanished. At least that's what the Geth believe." Tali added, sounding little unsure about her last statement. The ambassador didn't seem to buy this. "The Council is going to love this…" Sharia couldn't help but agree on that. No doubt the Council would just turn down this kind of thing. But then again that was their least concern.

But Shepard had something else in her mind. "The visions on Eden Prime… I understand it now. I saw… The Protheteans wiped out by the Reapers." Visions? On Eden Prime? This was just getting weirder and weirder. "Visions Commander?" Sharia asked little interested.

Shepard nodded at this. "I got it from this Prothetean Beacon on Eden Prime." Shepard said, then turned back to Tali. "Is there anything else that the Geth had on the Reapers?" she asked.

Tali then explained that the Geth worshipped them as Gods, which Sharia found it really strange. A non-organic race worshipping greater entity. "That is sounding rather far-fetched." and the ambassador was thinking the same thing. But with little different mind.

The dark skinned seemed not to care about these 'far-fetched' info's "No matter what they think about rest of this, those audio files prove Saren's a traitor!" That seemed to change the mood of the ambassador.

"The Captain's right. We need to present this to the Council right away!"

"What about the quarian." human, who was called Ashley Williams, or just Ash. Asked, pointing at Tali who didn't take kindly that kind gesture. "My name _is_ Tali!" she then looked straight at the Commander. "You saw me in the alley. Let me come with you." Tali almost sounded pleading.

Shepard simply smiled. "I'm happy to take all the help I can." she then turned to Sharia. "What about you Sharia? Interested to bring down Saren?"

Sharia was speechless. This had happened all of sudden. "Me?" she pointed herself. "Yes, you. Garrus has already agreed on helping us out." Shepard said. Sharia was little surprised that Garrus would leave his C-Sec duty for this. But then again, this was something big that you just couldn't ignore.

Especially if it had something to do with a possible rogue Specter who had an army of synthetics under his command and possible a asari Matriarch helping him. "Well, I can't just walk away from this." she shrugged. Not looking that excited, while she was almost jumping from excitement.

"So, you can count me in." she smiled. Shepard seemed to approve this. "Then, welcome aboard Tali and Sharia." she said. "Thanks. You won't regret this." Tali said. And Sharia could almost see her smiling behind that mask. "And if you do, it was your call to take us." Sharia joked. Which got a chuckle from both Tali and Commander.

"Anderson and I will go ahead to get things ready with the Council. Take few minutes to collect yourself and then meet us at the Tower." ambassador said, as he left with other human, Sharia had now learned was called "Anderson".

Shepard seemed to just stand there and think before she turned towards her new team. "Alright, this is what we are going to do. Alenko, you will take our guests to the Normandy and show them around, while Ash and Garrus will come with me." she told them.

"Understood Commander." Alenko said. Sharia then remembered something. "Uuum… Commander?" she raised her hand a little so she could get her attention. "Yeah Sharia?"

"I have few things that I need to get from my apartment if that is fitting for you?" she asked. Shepard nodded at this. "I guess, it doesn't hurt that much. Alright, you can get what ever you need. But come then to the C-Sec Aca…"

"Academy and then to the Normandy" Sharia finished. Which didn't seem sit well for the Commander. "Sorry." she said embarrassed. "But I pretty much know where to go since I work at the C-Sec don't I?" she tried to humor the Commander. Who made small smirk at this. "Yes. See you all on the ship." she said, while Ash and Garrus followed her.

Sharia left with the others but soon as they got back to the Embassies, Sharia took different cabin and left for her apartment.

* * *

_Soon. At Sharia's apartment._

Sharia went to her room for a change. She needed different cloths since she wasn't wearing her own cloths. She quickly decided to go with her C-Sec cloths, which were grayish blue colored.

Sharia had rather big apartment. She had three separated rooms from the front room that also held the kitchen. The two others held two different bedrooms and third had a large screen where Sharia tend to watch different films or any other programs. And it also had a perfect view for the Citadels Wards and the space. Her favorite place.

As she was finished with her cloths, she looked at her desk, which had her own personal console with a small desk light. But her eyes were fixed on the object that laid on far right on the desk. It was a sheathed knife, that gave her the nightmares years ago. "_I'm so sorry._" Sharia sadly thought. Almost letting few tears to run down her cheek.

She then moved towards the knife and took it from its place and eyed it. It still held the same weight and had a shiny surface. Like it was never used. But she knew better, she sighted and placed it on her hips. If it hadn't been for the C-Sec's policy, she would've taken the knife everywhere she went, incase she would cross paths with _him_. "_Next time I meet him, I won't let him get away! I promise you Nethely!_" she vowed like last time.

Now that she was ready, she left for the C-Sec so that she could get her weapons and armor. While going back to the Academy, she couldn't help but wonder how Palin would deal with this. That of course sent a smirk to her face. Of course the turian would blow at this, but that his problem.

She soon reached the C-Sec and went to the armory. Where she dressed herself in her blue armor and took her pistol and assault rifle. She quickly checked out that they were both still functional and working.

She then moved to the elevator that took her to the docking bay where her new "home" would be for a moment. When the elevator finally reached the docking bay, Sharia couldn't help but let out a quiet whistle.

The ship looked like it had some turian design in it for being a human vessel. "_Well, not anymore._" she thought, since now the ship had many non-humans. As she stepped inside, she was greeted by artificial voice that greeted. "_**Welcome aboard SSV Normandy.**_" this might be a start of a new life for her.

* * *

**Didn't I say that ya might get double update for this? Well here they are! And I hope you enjoyed it. Also, if you haven't guessed yet, the Shepard that is in this story is the very same Shepard from my "A Perfect Gift" fic. If you haven't read it go for it!**

**And once again don't forget to comment/review. But no flames! Unless they are part of constructive criticism.**

**Till next time, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**Chapter 4**

**They WHAT!**

_SSV Normandy._

"I'm telling you miss T'Sumi, you can't stay here!" Navigator Pressly said to Sharia with rather raised voice. "And why if I might ask?" she slightly spread her hands. "I don't see anyone else here, so I think I can move here." Sharia tried to put it simple way. But this human insisted too much.

And she had rather good idea why disliked the idea of an asari being here, in rather private areas. She really, hated these kinds of people who had great disrespects to other species. "_I wonder how Tali's handling this kind of situation…_" she wondered. She couldn't help but think, what sort of reception did the quarian got.

"You seem not to understand, that these are _only_ meant for our crewmembers." the Navigator tried to explain it, without showing his disrespect for Sharia. "So you are saying that I'm not part of your crew?" she asked. "You actually think, just because I'm not a human and "not part of the crew" I have no rights of using one of these empty rooms?" she quizzed him.

Now she could see the human was getting little nervous how to explain this. Before he could speak, Sharia cut him. "What you say, if we ask the Commanders opinion about this? After all she is the one in charge isn't she?" better deal with this whole thing with the Commander than with this man.

"Actually, Captain Anderson is the CIO of the Normandy. Commander is just SIC." he corrected Sharia. Sharia sighted at this, putting her left hand on her forehead, while putting the right on her hips. "Well, as I said, should we wait until the Commanding Officer arrives or…" she decided to leave it to that. Hoping that Pressly would drop the subject for a moment.

Pressly sighted this time from frustration. This whole conversation wasn't going anywhere. Maybe he could make the Captain to understand why she couldn't stay here. "_Let her think that she had won for now._" he thought. "Alright." he said, sounding little defeated. He then left, leaving Sharia alone.

She gave another glance around the room as the Navigator left. It was rather dim room with only a single bed and a small desk with a chair, there was also a closet which held few pillows and sleeping bags. There was also another room right next to her and a practice room that connected the two.

Unfortunately for her, there wasn't anything that would help her practice her Biotic skills. The room was small enough to fit at least four or five shooters to practice. But it was enough for her, she needed to keep her shooting eye sharp. But she right now didn't need practice. Right now, she needed get to the Medical Room, so that the doctor of this ship can look up her wound. The elevator of course was a real pain, just like in the Citadel. But thankfully she reached the Quarters fast and from there, to the Medical.

* * *

"You seem to be fine miss T'sumi." Chakwas said, while Sharia put her shirt back on. "I however suggest you won't be taking any part of Commanders missions for couple days." she explained. "While your wound is completely healed, some of your muscles still need to time to heal." Sharia nodded at this and fine with this. After all the stuff that had happened to her recently, she needed to rest anyway. "That's fine by me." she said. "And I doubt, living on this ship won't boring at all."

The doctor laughed at this. "You are right about that!" Sharia bided her goodbye and left the Medical Room with a smile on her face. Yes, being here might not be that boring. As she walked to the Quarters, the whole room was filled with a familiar voice. "_**This is**_ _**Commander Juliana Shepard speaking**_" she was getting a feeling that this speech was meant for raising peoples spirit. After all, it was a chance that they might not get out of this in one piece.

"_**We have our orders: find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to your crew. This mission isn't going to be easy.**_" now she had everybody's attention. In a way. "_**This began with an attack on human settlement on Traverse. But we know Saren won't stop there.**_" Shepard was silent for a moment, trying to sink the information into their heads. "_**His Geth armies aren't going stay on the far fringes of Citadel space.**_"

"_She sure knows when to make a damn good speech._" Sharia thought. It actually brought her little back with Nethely. While they were on some hard case, that seemed to have a big fire fight, Nethely knew how to raise peoples spirits. "_**For too long our species has stood apart from the others! Now it's for us to step up and do our job for the rest of the Galaxy!**_"

"_**Our enemy knows, we are following them. And when we go into the Traverse, Saren's followers will be waiting for us! But we will be ready for them too!**_"

"Damn straight!" one of the humans yelled at the dinner table, spilling some of his food and drink. "Calm down Sam!" human female, right opposite of him scowled him. "Sorry." he said quietly. Sharia couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. "_**Humanity needs this! Not just for our own sake, but for the sake of every other species in Citadel space. Saren must be stopped and I promise you all…**_" Sharia could almost feel the excitement radiating from the humans. And so was she feeling excited. Excited to kick some Geth ass and even Saren's. "_**We will stop him!**_"

The entire hall was for a moment filled with various cheers and whistles from the humans who were already for some action. Including herself. For a moment Sharia had lost her thought and forgot what she was doing, but soon remembered. She then took herself back to the elevator. She had decided to go to the Storage, mostly for Garrus. She wanted to know how exactly he was pulled into this.

She grunted in annoyance again, when the elevators doors were closed and started slowly descending towards her destination. After a short while, the elevator stopped and she stepped inside the Storage. "Sure needs little more lightning in here." she muttered to herself.

But she her thoughtful expression changed when she saw a familiar person working on a console near some kind of human transporter. While on her left side she saw the same krogan and human marine from before, but she decided to have some kind of talk with them later. Well, she might still rethink about the krogan…

She walked couple more steps, before opening her mouth. "You really like to work on calibrations don't you Garrus?" Sharia laughed when the said turian almost jumped. Garrus quickly turned, looking little alert in his eyes, but quickly calmed down when seeing Sharia.

"Spirits Sharia, don't walk on me like that!" he gasped a little. "For a moment I thought Palin had followed me somehow here and… well…" Garrus seemed to trail off from that, sounding little embarrassed. "You really confused me to Palin?" Sharia said, trying to sound like he had jus offended her.

To this Garrus just laughed. "Well, when somebody is coming up behind your back like that, you certainly will think of Palin." Garrus joked back. Sharia shook her head, having a small smile on her lips. But, both of them quickly changed back to more "serious" looks. "But, I doubt you came her just to throw couple jokes with me?"

"Yeah." Sharia admitted. "I couldn't help but wonder, how in the hell did you end up with Commander Shepard?"

"That might be thanks to you." Garrus said. Sharia raised an eyebrow at this. What he possibly meant by that. Last time she checked, she was helping Tali out. "How so?" Garrus chuckled a bit. "Well, after my failed search for finding proof about Saren being part of attack on Eden Prime and possibly killing Nihlus I was sent back to C-Sec for some damn paperwork." Garrus explained. Saying the paperwork little bitterly.

Sharia let out a small laugh, if there was one thing many C-Sec officers hated was paperwork. "But after your small showdown with Derios and when you disappeared while looking for that quarian, Tali." he quickly added quarians name so Sharia wouldn't start reminding him that she has a name. He sighted inwardly, since he knew that Sharia somewhat had a soft spot for quarians. "Well, soon we got couple calls about a wounded C-Sec officer that matched with your description being carried by a quarian to a small Med Clinic."

Sharia started slowly suspect where this was going, as she tilted her head a little. "And of course Palin decided to throw me there, but I came little too late and instead meeting you and Tali, I was greeted by couple goons who where threatening Doctor Chloe." Sharias then started to look worried, but before she could say anything Garrus continued.

"No need to worry though, before anything bad could happen Commander just happened to arrive at scene and what a good timing that was. By sudden appearance of couple humans and a krogan surprised the goon, it gave a perfect opportunity to take them down." Garrus noticed the sudden change of expression on Sharias face and knew what was coming to him so once again he interrupted her before she could began.

"Please don't start scowling me too." he sighted. "I already got already mouthful from Shepard and besides, it's not like you are that careful." he said, giving Sharia a long look. Shaira on the other hand, put both of her hands on her hips from annoyance. "You know that is little low, right Garrus?" she asked. Not wanting to raise her voice so that she might not make a scene.

"I guess so…" he said sheepishly. Garrus then returned back to the matter." But anyway, as I said. The Commanders sudden appearance at the scene got the goons distracted and I used that to my advantage. After that me, Sheapard and everybody else took down rest of them and Chloe is fine, little scared after that but save none the less."

Sharia felt relieved that the doctor had survived this encounter. If not, that would have added another person she knew that she had placed them right into the dangerous position. "Good." she sighted, looking at floor for a short moment. She then looked back at Garrus. "And after that you guys came to our rescue?" asked. But already knew the answer. "Pretty much." Garrus said, shrugging his shoulders. "But one thing did bothered me…"

Sharia raised questioning eyebrow. "Why didn't you contact anyone, or even took yourself back to the C-Sec." Sharia sighted at this question. "Well first of all, as I reached Tali behind 'Morzza's Weapon Store' and was shot." she saw as Garrus's eyes went little wide from the shock. "The damn salarian had disabled my radio, so I couldn't call for help." she explained.

"And before I knew it, I was lying on the floor with a bullet gone through me." she pointed at her side where the bullet had hit her. "And it would have taken little too long for us to get back to C-Sec, so I thought we should go to Michel's." she said. But that seemed not to be enough to fill Garrus's curiosity. "Then why didn't you asked her to contact C-Sec?"

Sharia was about to answer, but quickly closed her mouth. "_Damn it! He is right!_" she thought. Right now she hoped that she didn't look much embarrassed. While she had purple skin it wasn't exactly dark enough to hide her blush, which was now was little darker color. But thanks to Normandy's dim lights, Sharia's blush wasn't really noticeable. But Garrus could already guess that Sharia felt stupid.

"You didn't think about it?" he asked. Sharia turned herself to look at Garrus again. "No!" she said. "But there was so many things going on that I didn't think about something simple like that!" she tried defended herself. Garrus let out a small chuckle, deciding to enjoy this moment for a short while.

"Or was it because you couldn't take your eyes off from a cute little quarian with you?" he teased Sharia, who now looked even more embarrassed. And now little pissed off. "Okay! _That _is insulting!" she said with little raised voice. Garrus laughed at this. Getting couple glances from the human and krogan, who quickly returned back to what ever he was doing. "And stop laughing!" Sharia said, now with little more lowered voice.

"Sorry Sharia but couldn't help myself." Garrus laughed. But quickly changed his voice tone. "But since all of that talk about you and your dealings and opinions about the quarians is just something that many had started make different kinds of rumors." he said. Sharia stared at Garrus for awhile with wide eyes. "Your kidding me are you?" she asked. Now she somewhat understood better about all of those various comments and other remarks about her relation with quarians she had encountered.

"No, I'm not." he said. Sharia let out a long frustrated sight while looking at the floor, her arms simply hanged limply, showing her dislike about the situation. "I guess this was surprise to you?" he asked, after seeing the reaction Sharia had. "Well, not really." she said. Composing herself back up. But still sounding really frustrated. "I sometimes wondered why they always started being really smart asses on me every time there a quarian had to do with it." she explained. Putting her hand on her forehead. Feeling herself calming down a little.

"Sheesh, I though that at least someone might've told me that there these kinds were happening behind my back." she said. Garrus looked little awkward at Sharia. "Hey! Don't start putting this on me!" Sharia laughed at this statement. "Well, you are the only one here." she laughed more. Garrus couldn't help but agree on that, now that he had blurred out the "secret".

"Well, I guess I'd be going." Sharia said all of sudden. "I need to think about what you said and I kind of need to find either Commander Shepard or this "Captain Anderson". she said.

"Well, your search just got little more easier Detective." Sharia jumped when she heard the Commanders voice behind her and quickly turned at the human behind, with startled expression. "Commander!" both Sharia and Garrus said, sounding little shocked.

"So what you wished to talk with me?" Shepard asked Sharia. Sharia quickly composed herself, looking more professional. "Well, I was hopping to speak with your Captain after my little encounter with Navigator Pressly." she explained. "I see." Juliana said. Looking little down. "To your knowledge, Captain Anderson had stepped down from his position, so the ship is under mine command." she explained.

This was surprising. Last time Sharia saw, the Captain didn't look like he was trying to either get rid of his position by himself or by someone else. But she already had good idea. "Let me guess, he was forced to sit down from his position because all of that political shit storm?" she asked. In which she was answered by a sad smirk from Commanders lips.

"Yeah." she sighted. Sharia guessed the Commander and the Captain might've been close friends since the human looked little depressed. "So that means I'm in charge of Normandy and it's crew." she said. And before Sharia could brought out her issue again, the Commander interrupted her. "And I talked Pressly about "non-crewmembers" using the quarters and I made it clear that you have my permission to use them." she explained. Gaining a smile from Sharia. "Thanks Commander." Sharia smiled.

"But that also means that you take responsibility of your quarter." she said. Which was fine with Sharia. "Of course Commander." she said. Starting to make her leave. Right now, what she needed was some rest now that she found out that it was okay for to stay in the quarters for a while. "If you'll excuse me Commander, I'll be going now. Talk to you later." she then turned to Garrus. "See you around Garrus, and it was nice to see you again."

"Same here Sharia." he said. Sharia then left for the elevator. As she entered the elevator she released that she hadn't gone to check out how Tali was doing. "_I hope she is doing fine._" she thought as the elevator stopped. "_I take a small nap and then go check her out._" she thought.

* * *

**Yeah, sorry for this lame chapter. Hopefully the next one will be better and sorry for long wait, but I've had small "meltdown" after my 20****th**** chapter of "Halo: Crossed Fates" so my brains needed some cool down. And don't forget to review/comment.**

**Till next time, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**A/N: This chapter marks the start of slowly revealing past of Sharia. And let me tell ya, it is one heck of a past she got (both bad and good)! Just wait and see! And this another talk, talk, etc. chapter, so it might be boring.**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**Chapter 5**

**Some More Talking**

_It was the same like every time. Everything seemed to be complete blur, but still so clear. The dark room, the terrible stench of… and the screams. "RUN SHARIA! GO, GET C-SEC!" but the scream was soon silenced by another voice. "Shut yourself asari bitch!" then a sound which meant when a person is being stabbed. Then blood and laughter. Then… everything was unclear. But one thing was clear. His face. That disgustingly green face and the eyes that held lot of anger._

Before the nightmare couldn't go any further, Sharia jerked awake. Both shocked and confused. Why was the nightmare haunting her now? It usually happened on the day when Nethely _horribly _murdered. It was hers sort of twisted anniversary. And it was many more weeks, before that day. Not that she wanted to have these vivid nightmares again, but it was strange.

She quickly checked the time which showed "0100. Damn…" she thought out loud. Sharia then laid down and tried to sleep. But the sleep didn't come. For a while she changed her position, but couldn't get any sleep. After maybe a hour later Sharia just got up, while having little dry throat. "_I need something to drink._" she thought as she got off from her bed and moved towards the elevator.

Sharia wasn't surprised when she entered the Quarters, finding the Quarters even more darker. "They really need to change those lights." she said. For a short while she had trouble seeing things, but soon got used to the dark. But as Sharia entered the mess hall, she noticed a figure sitting on a chair that seemed simply looking at the table.

Much to Sharia's surprise, she recognized the figure the be no other than Tali. Sharia then made small sound from her throat, that startled the young quarian. "Oh keelah Sharia!" she said sounding startled. While holding her hand on her chest. " You scared me. I thought I was the only one that was awake." she said, sounding still little startled. She then quickly composed her voice. "So, why are here?"

"Had a bad dream and finding that my throat needed some drinking." she explained. While Tali nodded and remained silent, Sharia walked towards the small console that rested next to the sleeping pods. After couple buttons, Sharia took the small cup that was filled with water and took one long sip. Emptying the cup with one sip. After she put the cup away, she decided to walk back to her room, but as she saw Tali again and the way she looked she decided to stay for a while.

"And why are you here?" she asked. Tali jumped a little again, when Sharia started to talk her again. And Sharia could tell that the quarian felt somewhat uncomfortable. "I couldn't sleep." she put it simply. But Sharia heard that quarian sounded really embarrassed about the subject. "I don't think that's the whole story." Sharia pointed out. "No need to be embarrassed.." she said.

Tali shifted little before she started talking with unsure voice. "Well, it's because this ship is so quiet." Sharia stared in silent at Tali for a while. Little surprised by the answer. "_Well, that was… interesting._" she then sited herself, right opposite side of Tali, so she was facing her. "It's too quiet?" she asked. Tali started moving little more, showing the asari that sited right front of her, how embarrassing the subject was.

"Please don't laugh, it's just that back in flotilla our ships tend to keep lot of noise and if they are suddenly silenced, it usually means that either engine's died out or an air filter's shut down." Tali hastily explained. Sharia couldn't help, but shake her head. "Don't worry, I think I understand your problem." she said. Now crossing her hands. Tali on other hand lowered her shoulders from the relief.

"Thanks. And I know that those kinds of things aren't going to happen here, since this ship isn't exactly centuries old. But as they say, 'old habits die hard'." Tali laughed at bit, as did Sharia. "So, how is your live going anyway here on the Normandy?" Sharia asked. Tali's small amused mood quickly changed into a cheerful one. "It's been great! When I entered the ship, some of the crew gave me odd looks, but that didn't last long." she explained. "But the crew at the Engine room were amazingly great to me!" she said. Now with really cheerful voice. "They gave me some knowledge about their engines like how they work, what you should do if they tend to malfunction and much more."

"And their ship's drive core is simply amazing! I never would have thought they could be able to fit something that big in this ship!" she explained. Sounding really excited. "You should come to see it when you can!" she said. Still excited about the ship that was completely different from the other ships from the flotilla. "I guess." Sharia said. "Well, it's good to know that the crew have been good to you." Sharia smiled to Tali. "I bet it must be a good change for the reception you got before?" she asked.

"It surely is little better, but I'm not saying that there aren't any kinds of places that gives a good treatment for the quarians. Since, while on my Pilgrimage I met many good people that were kind enough to give some place to stay for a while."

"I'm sure." Sharia smiled. "You know that its kind of sad that even after all this time, most of the galaxy still despites quarians." Sharia said sadly. "Yeah." Tali said, lowering her head. But quickly raised her head again. "But at least some people care about what happens to us." she said little happily. "Well, I'm happy if I'm same position." Sharia joked a bit. But still sounding appreciated. Tali simply nodded.

As they sited there, Sharia started to feel the sleep coming back to her again. But also it gave her a small thought. "Hey, Tali. I might have something that might help you with your little sleeping problem." she said. "Sure." Tali said, uncertain what the asari had in mind. Sharia then brought up her Omni-tool. "Would you bring up your Omni-tool?" she asked.

Tali nodded and activated her own. "Why?" she asked. "I might have something that could help you with your sleeping." Sharia explained. Going through some of her files. After couple seconds, Sharia looked at Tali. "Would you connect your Omni-tool to mine?" Tali of course obliged and soon her Omni-tool beeped, telling her that Sharia had sent her something. "What is it?" she asked, while eyeing the file that appeared.

"Just try it." Sharia said smiling. Tali eyed the file little while longer before opening it. Suddenly, what sounded like music started playing through her sound filters. It was really slow and smooth sounding. And there was this strange sound, like some sort of crystal making the sound. And then there was this, asari voice humming. "What's this song?" she asked.

"A small song from one of the artists of Illium." Sharia answered with a pleasant smile on her face. Now that she knew that Tali liked it. "It's really great and beautiful song." she explained. Tali just looked confused, if you could even see her eyes in the dark. "And how is that going to help with my sleeping?" she asked. "The calming music usually gives you little tired feeling." Sharia explained.

"So, are you telling me that because this is a boring song because it helps you out with your sleeping problem?" Tali asked, teasingly while pausing the song. "Uuuh… I didn't exactly meant to say it is boring or anything." Sharia said, sounding little awkward. "What I meant was that the song itself is so calming and… oh you get the idea." she said. Not knowing how to explain the rest, which already sounded little corny.

"I guess." Tali said, shrugging her shoulders. "Well, thanks anyway." she said, sounding little cheerful. Sharia nodded, while letting inwardly a relieved sigh. "Well, I guess I see you in the morning." Sharia said. "Are you leaving already?" Tali asked, sound little disappointed. She was starting to getting enjoy her conversation with Sharia. "Yeah." Sharia said. "I think that I should try catch a sleep, since there is still sometime before the 'morning'." she said, getting up from her chair and walking towards the elevator. "Good night Tali."

"Good night Sharia." Tali said, getting up also and walking back to her sleeping pod. As she placed herself, in the pod she activated her Omni-tool letting the calming music play. And much to her surprise, she found herself completely tired and light headed. After a short while, the was almost ready to fall asleep, but she shut down her Omni-tool and when the music ended, Tali was almost immediately in sleep. Having really good dreams. And same was with Sharia who thankfully didn't see any kinds of nightmares for the rest of the night.

* * *

_The next "morning". _SSV Normandy

Sharia woke up with a yawn. She was thankful that the nightmare hadn't troubled her rest of the night, but the presence was somehow still there. She quickly checked out the time. "0745". That was a good time to get up. She soon found herself again in the Quarters, which was now little more crowded than yesterday.

As she seated herself, on the table, enjoying her small meal before someone sat front of her. "I should thank you about that song you gave me." Sharia raised her head, looking straight at Tali's visor and the glowing eyes that faintly glowed through them. "You are welcome Tali." Sharia said. Returning back to her food. "So, I guess you slept well?" she asked.

"Yes." Tali answered. "And you were right about the music calming you down. It certainly, gave less worry about the silence of the ship." Tali explained. Sharia couldn't help but let out a small smile, as she took a small bite of a human food they seem to call 'bread'. It had rather tasteless taste and it was somewhat little dry, so swallowing was little difficult. She quickly took her glass drank the water, making the 'bread' fall down her throat little easily.

"I simply don't understand some of these strange foods humans have." Sharia said. She then turned her attention back to Tali. "If you like I can give couple more, I have a good collection of them." she offered. "I would like that." Tali said. Sounding interested. She really didn't have much time of looking into different cultures while on her Pilgrimage.

"So, who is the artist anyway?" she asked interested. "Well, I don't exactly know her name since she seems to work with her artist name: Dawn of Illium." Sharia explained. "I see, just where does she get this inspiration?" Tali asked. "I don't think I've heard many people that made these kinds of music's with such…" Tali paused, looking for a right word. But Sharia beat her up to it. "Passion?" she asked.

"Yeah." Tali said. "Passion."

"Well, I read that she got them from her bond mate." Sharia said. Making Tali's curiosity increase. "Really?" she asked. "And how did he or she…" at the mention of 'she' Tali slightly cleared her throat. "Inspired her exactly?" at this Sharia seemed to became little uncomfortable. "Well, that happened after she… usually had, melded with her partner." she said the 'melding' part little quietly, hoping that she didn't draw any kind attention.

"_What! Oh keelah! Have I actually listened someone's sexual fantasies!_" Tali thought, feeling her face little hotter. Sharia quickly interrupted Tali's small panic thoughts. "It's not what you think!" she putted her hands up. "It's because the music in a way, 'shows' us the way she saw her mates mind." she hastily explained. Which made Tali feel little better. "Oh, I see." she said, little embarrassed. "_Coming Tali, say something else so you can forget this!_"

"So Sharia how old are you exactly?" she placed her hand front of her "mouth". She didn't wanted to be _that _bold. This had also surprised Sharia. "Oh sorry Sharia! I wasn't thinking clearly! I hope I didn't offend you!" she quickly said. Thinking she had offended the former C-Sec detective.

"No, no you didn't offend me." Sharia said, with small amusement in her voice. Tali on the another hand let out a relieved sigh. "Thanks." Tali said. "It's just that, I know that you asari tend to live very long lives." Tali explained, with now controlled voice. "And you look like you are somewhere around middle twenties in human years."

Sharia raised here eyebrow. "I see, well I'm about two hundred and eighty-nine years old." she said. Tali just stared Sharia in some disbelieve. "_That old already? I thought she was at least over hundred._"

"Guess that was a little shocking?" Sharia asked, tilting her head a little.

"Yeah, I guess." Tali said. "I mean I kind of thought that you are little over hundred years old." Tali explained. Sounding little awkward. "I don't blame you." Sharia said. Eating her finale piece of her breakfast. "So, is there anything else you would like to know?" she asked.

She wouldn't mind telling the quarian about some pieces of her live. It was always somewhat nice telling people about what you've been doing since you can live quite long.

"Hey Tali!" a call came from their left side before Tali could say anything. "Are you coming? Adams wants us to make clean up the engine!" one of the engineers called Tali. "Yeah." she said back. Turning back to Sharia. "Guess, I'll be talking with you later then?"

"Yeah." Sharia said. Her shoulders slightly dropped from the disappointment.

Soon after Tali had left, Sharia took her glass and plates and left them beside the console next to sleeping pods. She then decided to go to Commander Shepard, since she still needed to know about this visions that she mentioned on the Citadel. "Funny that I didn't thought about brining it up earlier." she said to herself, entering the Commanders Quarters.

"What's up with humans addictions with dim lights?" Sharia grunted. Which got the attention of Juliana who was working on her console. "It wasn't actually our idea of putting the dim lights." Juliana said. "Since this ship was made by both human and turian desing. So you might blame it on turians?" Juliana joked.

Sharia chuckled lightly at the small joke the Commander made. "So, what exactly brings you to my quarters?" she asked.

"About these visions you mentioned back on the Citadel Commander." Sharia said bluntly. Hands behind her back. That made Juliana raise her eyebrow. "What you want to talk about then?" Juliana asked. Then quickly added. "And you can just call me Juliana or 'Juli' as some of friends use to call me. I'm getting little bit tired that everybody call me either by my surname or rank." she said.

"Okay Juliana. I was just wondering if you would let me see these visions of yours. If there is something that I could help out with." Sharia said. This interested Shepard. "How so? Do you have any experience on the Protheans?" she asked. Wanting to make sure that the asari knew what she was doing.

"Well…" Sharia started awkwardly, rubbing back of her head, looking away from Shepard, her head slightly looking sideways. "It was a hobby in my earliest Maiden years, like some of asari younglings." she explained.

Juliana sighted. "I don't think that is going to help us much. And besides, all the visions showed me were the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers." she explained, sound little disappointed.

"But what if there is something that you haven't noticed before?" Sharia suggested. Juliana simply shocked her head. "Maybe its just best if we wait until we reach Therum, which should be in couple days."

"What's on Therum?" Sharia asked. Now she little wished that she had stayed with Commander, so she could've gotten at least some information about what they were going to do. "From what I've been told Dr. Liara T'Soni, the daughter of Matriarch Benezia and is specialist into Protheans." she explained.

This surprised Sharia. She had no idea that someone like Matriarch Benezia might have a child. Usually when asari reached their Matriarch stage, they usually tend to return to Thessia and concentrate on leading the asari people and not much thinking about having a family.

Noticing Sharia had been quiet, for a short time she knew that this was some new information for the detective. "You haven't heard that your Matriarch had a child?"

"Well, it's not really uncommon in asari culture." Sharia started explain. "But it's still little rare for them to usually make a family, since they are most of their time busy, "guiding" our people." she explained, while throwing a quick finger quote after mentioning "guiding".

"Did I understand correctly that you have something against with what ever the Matriarchs do?" Juliana asked. Raising her eyebrow.

Sharia shocked her head slightly. "Not exactly." she said, walking towards the wall next to her and leaned against it, crossing her arms. "It's just frustrating when they most of the time they seem to act like the Council. Simply just sitting and talking or they just gather much followers as they can while preaching about how 'we can change the Galaxy' and blah, blah…" Sharia explained, shaking her head little.

Juliana couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "I guess, even the great Matriarchs fall into the political 'problems' like everyone else." she joked, in which Sharia responded with a small sound that sounded little like giggling. "I guess." Sharia then said.

"So, what else can you tell me about the asari?" Juliana then asked. Interested to learn something about them.

"What you want exactly to know?" Sharia asked, raising her eyebrow.

"I guess you could tell me about your history." Juliana suggested. Sharia shrugged. "Okay. Well, as you know our people are natural Biotics and originated from planet Thessia…" after a long conversation and questions asked, Sharia retreated to her own quarters to meditate. Which helped little to evolve her Biotics.

* * *

The couple days seemed to fly fast. The next day she found herself in the company of Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, who told her interesting stories about his and Commander Juliana's adventures, about the Alliance and about his time of learning about the Biotics. Sharia even gave him some tips how to have slightly better control of his Biotics,

Much to her surprise, she also found herself talking with the krogan who surprisingly wasn't like most of the krogan. And because of his age, Sharia got few good stories but that didn't meant that just because she was able to speak to a krogan they were friends. He simply stated that he's "going to tolerate her for". When Sharia asked what was his problem with him (which was stupid question, she thought later), the krogan answered. "You asari are too soft and not worthy of my time". After that she decided to leave the krogan alone, at least for now.

And as predicted she found herself mostly enjoying the company of Garrus and Tali And Juliana. With Garrus, they usually exchanged what they had experienced in C-Sec and sometimes opinions about how some case should've been handled etc., but mostly Sharia enjoyed her time with Tali.

Most of their time they talked bout different things. Like Tali talked about her time in flotilla and about her family. When Tali had asked her about her family, Sharia said that it was little too personal, but she might tell her later. Luckily for both of them Tali didn't brought it up since noticing how upset the asari became.

But they also exchanged about their peoples cultures and mostly they also talked about this "Dawn of Illium", well Tali mostly asked about her. And Sharia even gave her the entire collection she had. And Sharia had also enjoyed the talk about Normandy's engines. She never thought that she would be even interested about ships engines. But the way Tali talked about them, was waking her interest. But she did admit that when Tali had told her that the Normandy's drive core was amazing, she was right. She also admitted to Tali that she never would've thought that it was able to fit in ship like Normandy, which wasn't exactly large vessel.

But soon they reached Therum, the location of Doctor Liara T'Soni and Commander took Garrus, Tali and Kaidan with her. After a while of waiting Sharia received call from the pilot, Joker that the Commander was having a small briefing in the comm room.

* * *

**There, sorry if this chapter was boring or stupid. There was LOT of conflict for this chapter since I always had different ideas. But still, I hope you enjoyed it. And please don't forget to review/comment about either this chapter or story.**

**PS: I guess, you guys didn't expect Sharia to be that old eh? At First I thought her to be at least over hundred, but then I thought it would be little "too young". But then I thought that what if she was little close to her Matron years, that could be little better age for he and... There! And besides, I have already made her past little interesting (if you find it interesting), which will be revealed in the future piece by piece. Which means that there might be prequel for this story AFTER I've gone through the "sequels".  
**

**And constructive criticism, small ideas and suggestion are welcome as long you sent to me as PM, since if I'm going to use them, I wouldn't want to spoil them. No flames, unless they are part of the constructive criticism.**

**Till next time, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**Chapter 6**

**The Distress Call**

SSV Normandy. _Communications Room._

"_This would be interesting._" Sharia thought as she stepped into the Comm room. Everybody was already there, including a asari, who Sharia guessed was this Doctor Liara T'Soni. And she wasn't anything she had expected. When she was told they would get a _daughter _of an asari Matriarch, she was expecting someone with little more cocky and self-centered personality. And of course little older.

But not a shy looking, unsure Maiden who probably wasn't more than little over hundred years old. "We almost died out there and your pilot is making jokes?" she asked. Not at all self-centered. To her, she sounded more like a person who had stayed too long away from other people. "It's a coping mechanism." Juliana explained. "You'll get used to it."

"_She better had._" Sharia thought as she leaned on the railing, since all the chairs were occupied. In these past days, she had talked also to their pilot who seemed to like crack joke after joke. Well, not every time. But it was good that there was some kind of stress relief.

Most of the conversation went about Doctors research and of course about little herself. When she told them she was only one hundred and six, Sharia tried hard not snicker. Something about mentioning her age just made her snicker, maybe it was just the fact that she expected her to be older.

But she quickly concentrated on the conversation when Liara mentioned about the fact that the Protheans weren't the ones that made the Citadel. "…and like all the other forgotten civilizations through galactic history, the Protheans disappeared." Sharia could see why Liara's research had not been taken seriously. It was really a bold statement that the Protheans weren't the first ones, although the "clues" had shown differently.

"They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines. The Reapers." Juliana said. Trying to see if the name brought anything up. "The.. The Reapers? But I have never heard of…" it didn't. " How did you know this?" and the Doctors curiosity was raised quickly. But there was also some frustration in her voice. Probably from the fact that someone that had no experience with the Protheans had suddenly figured out what could've happened to them and the ones before them. "What evidence you have?"

"There was a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime." Juliana told her. "It burned some kind of vision to my brain." that made the younger asari to forget her frustration and reignited her curiosity.

"Of course." she almost said to herself. "The beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the user. Finding one that is even functioning is really rare." Liara explained, her voice slowly raising. Sounding little more excited. "No wonder the Geth attacked Eden Prime. The chance of acquiring such technology… eve badly damaged one is worth of any risk."

"I guess, you know something about the beacons we don't?" Sharia asked. Drawing everybody's attention to her.

"I… uuuh…" suddenly the younger asari seemed to lost her trail of thought when Sharia cut in. "Well, the beacons were only meant to interact with Prothean minds only. Whatever information the Commander acquired would have been unclear." she said. Now looking back to Juliana. And Sharia noticed that there was something in younger asari's eyes while she was looking at the Commander.

"I am amazed you were able to make sense out of it at all. A lesser mind would have been utterly destroyed. You must be remarkably strong-willed Commander." It was already quite clear that the Doctor was quite interested in Commander since she was "touched" by the Prothean technology.

"Sorry to break in, but this doesn't exactly help us finding Saren, or the Conduit." Sharia cut in, while noticing how annoyed Alenko started to become when Liara was lost in the moment. "_I smell small hints of jealousy._" Sharia thought.

"You are right. I'm sorry I was… lost in my scientific curiosity. However I do not have any kind of information that could help you finding the Conduit. Or Saren." she said. Sounding little regretful.

This was getting them much nowhere. Whatever information they had wanted, they surely didn't get any. "I don't why Saren wanted you out of the picture, but I have a feeling that we'll be a lot better off if we took you along with us." Juliana said. Giving Liara comforting smile.

"Thank you Commander." Liara said. "I will try my best to help and reassure you that I'm not helping Saren and I try my best to help you." she said, with a small gentle smile forming on her lips.

"I know you will." Juliana said reassuring.

"Thank you Commander. I cannot think of anywhere safer than being here on your ship." Liara said. Which seemed to flatter the Commander for some reason. "And my knowledge of the Protheans might come useful later."

"And adding her Biotic abilities with Sharia's, I have a feeling we might be fine." Garrus added.

"Welcome aboard Liara." Juliana said to Liara, a small smile forming on her lips. Liara nodded back, having appreciative look in her eyes. "Thank you Commander, I'm very grateful…" Liara then all of sudden looked really worn off. Like she had suddenly remembered that she had been up for many days and haven't eaten anything. She even started to have some problems standing up. "I'm afraid I feel little light-headed." she said, placing her palm on her forehead.

"When was the last time you ate? Or slept?" Kaidan asked. "Maybe Dr. Chackwas should take a look at you." he offered. "_Just what exactly happened on that trip?_" Sharia wondered. "_I need to ask either Tali or Garrus about what happened down there._" she decided.

"I… it is probably just mental exhaustion, coupled with the shock about the Protheans true fate. I need some time. So, are we done Commander?" Liara asked.

Juliana nodded and then turned her gaze on the rest of the team. "We can talk later after you've seen Chackwas. Rest of you, dismissed." she ordered. As Juliana said that, everybody got up and started leaving as the Commander stayed, having a small chat with the Council.

"Uh, excuse me." Sharia turned, seeing the young doctor looking at her awkwardly. "Yes?" she asked. Raising her eyebrow. "Well, I was wondering if you could show me where this Dr. Chackwas' office is?" she asked.

"Oh. It's not hard to miss." Sharia explained. "Just walk trough the door on either side." she pointed." And after the stairs, walk to right side of the elevator and you find it." Sharia instructed. But that didn't seem to help much since the young asari still looked rather confused. "What you say, if I showed you?" she offered. To this Liara simply nodded, while giving a quick glanced around the Command Deck, seeing most of the crew giving her suspecting gazes.

"Just ignore them." Sharia tried to comfort the young asari. Who turned her gaze from the crew to the older asari besides her. She gave her a small nod and then left for the Medical Bay.

"It doesn't make any sense." Liara then opened her mouth. "Hm?" Sharia turned to look Liara, with questioning look. "About Benezia. Even if we hadn't talked in couple years, I know her. She wouldn't do anything like this. It just doesn't make any sense" she sounded almost pleading.

To this Sharia shocked her head. "To tell the truth I'm not sure what to think about it." Sharia then shrugged her shoulders. "But yeah, it doesn't exactly make sense a asari Matriarch would join a corrupted Specter like Saren."

"So, you believe I'm innocent?" Liara asked, sounding little hopeful. "That I have nothing to with either my mother or Saren?"

"Well, I can tell that you are innocent. I mean, I've spent half-century working with C-Sec." Sharia laughed slightly. "You don't carry this sort, kind of aura around you."

"Aura?" Liara asked confused.

"Well, every time I had 'small talks' with the criminals that usually tried to lie to me, or something close to that, they usually tend to send around this strange feeling to me." Sharia tried to explain. "It's even difficult even to me explain. It's just my gut feeling where ever I try to 'read' a person." she shrugged.

"I… I see." Liara said. Not exactly knowing what to say to that. "Might if I ask you, how did you find yourself serving on a human ship?" Liara asked out of curiosity. It was rather strange seeing so many different species working in a Alliance ship. From what she had heard, the humans usually tend to be quite independent and didn't wish to have any dealings with either Council or none-Council species.

"It wasn't really that hard." Sharia shrugged again, while attending to add some humor in her voice. But that didn't seem to catch the Doctor. "Just had to help out a quarian with vital information about Saren had something to do with the Geth attack on Eden Prime colony." Liara gave her rather strange look when she had said 'wasn't that hard'.

"It was a joke." Sharia said sounding little serious. The younger asari then realized her mistake. "Oh Goddess." she said, sounding really embarrassed. "I'm sorry, but I have spent most of my time trying to understand Protheans and my social skills are bit of rusty." Liara quickly noticed that Sharia had stopped right front of a door, which meant that they've reached the Medical Room. "Is this it?" she asked. Wanting to make sure.

"Yeah." Sharia answered, with a nod. Liara for a moment felt herself little silly. Was the Medical Room really this close? "Don't be like that." Sharia assured her, as if sensing her feelings. Liara looked at her with puzzling look. "This ship might look big at first, but once you take some time with it. You notice how small it really is." she explained.

"Thanks I guess." Liara said, sounding still little embarrassed. "I guess you won't be coming with me?" she asked.

"No." Sharia put it in simple reply. But tried not to sound too bold. "Well, see ya later." she said, sounding little awkward. Liara only nodded again, then entered the Medical Room, while Sharia went towards the elevator. And after another painful elevator ride, she found herself in the Storage.

From there she started walking towards the Engineer room, but as she entered, she noticed that Tali was nowhere. She took couple more steps, trying to find Tali working on a different console of a panel. "If you are looking for Tali, I heard she was helping Vakarian out with the Mako." one of the engineers said. Noticing the asari's searching gaze. Sharia gave him a acknowledging nod and exited the Engineer.

When she re-entered Storage, she noticed that the Mako had lot of what looked like burnt marks, many scratches from what it looked like came from various weapons. Heavy ones. "I still can't believe that we had to bring her back like this! And I'm surprised that the turret didn't overheated." she heard Garrus' voice, coming from inside of the vehicle.

"And I say it again: Don't blame it on me!" she heard Tali's strict voice, coming from behind the Mako. "You can blame the Geth on that one!" the quarian sounded quite annoyed with her current mechanic partner.

"Wow! What happened to the Mako" Sharia asked little shocked. At hearing her voice, Garrus climbed out of the vehicle. "It looks like it has seen better days."

"Uuuuh…" Tali sounded now little awkward and unsure if she should say anything. "Well, those came from the Commander." she said awkwardly. While this bit of "information" was little surprising, but the upset look on Garrus' face was quite hilarious. But, Sharia had heard that Garrus sometimes tend to get little _too _attached to vehicles he takes care of. Finally Tali emerged from behind of the Mako and seemed to clean her gloved hands.

She gave quick glances around the hall, like making no one wasn't hearing then quickly placed the towel away. She then talked with bit lowered voice. "Let's just say that, Commander isn't the best driver." Sharia also noticed some small entertainment in Tali's voice.

"Or maybe this vehicle is just little hard to control?" Sharia suggested. Joking a little also. "I don't think so." Tali said. "From look of it, this should be really stable vehicle. We even have couple transporters like this in our fleet. Only not so… upgraded." Tali explained, while glancing at the Mako.

"And the turian military also have these kinds of vehicles for different kinds of scouting. While the driving might be hard for a rookie, a real 'pro' as the humans put it, can mostly drive with out any trouble." Garrus explained, while giving the damaged Mako a nasty glare.

"But damaged Mako aside, I guess the mission went well?" Sharia asked. Wanting to change the topic from Commander Juliana's driving skills. She was now little more interested to know, what had happened on the planet while she waited. "Hmmm… Maybe a small break doesn't hurt anybody." he said taking couple steps away from the Mako. Tali looked at both Sharia and Garrus, before leaning on back of the Mako. Trying to have a good position, since it would take a little while to tell the whole story.

"When we touched down, on Therum we were mostly greeted by lot of magma pools. That's one reason for Mako's damage." Tali added, looking straightly at Garrus. "I doubt that's all." Sharia put in.

"No." Tali said, turning her gaze to Sharia. "At first everything seemed to go well, until a Geth dropship arrived and started dropping Armatures, troopers and more trying to stop or slow us down." she told. "Commander even ran through couple Armatures and Colossus'. Literally." that let out couple chuckles from Sharia and soon Tali joined.

After the quick chuckles, Tali continued her story. "But of course that didn't stop us much, until we reached a point where Mako wasn't exactly big enough to fit through and we had to continue on foot."

"And that's where the hard part started?" Sharia asked. Tali nodded at this. But instead of her continuing, Garrus came in. "You took words out of our mouths. The moment we little closer the dig site, we were attacked by Geth snipers, rocket and Shock Troopers. Hell, we even had to fight a Colossus!" Garrus then shocked his head from the memory. "It was quite a tight spot. But thanks to Tali we were able give hard time for the Geth also." Garrus said, looking at Tali. Giving her operative look at her. "Shepard surely did the right thing to bring you along."

"You doubted my skills Garrus Vakarian?" Tali asked, with fake surprised voice. "Gee Garrus. I thought you knew that our quarian friend has quite experience." Sharia joined with Tali to tease Garrus.

"No, no." Garrus raised his hands defensively. Chuckling slightly. "I had no doubt about our Tali's technical skills. But I was little more worried about her experience in a firefight." he explained.

"Trust me Garrus." Sharia said. "From what I saw from that small firefight in the Wards, Tali can handle herself pretty nicely." she then shot a quick and little wide smile on Tali. For a moment Sharia thought she saw the quarian making a small movement and a strange look in her eyes which probably was from possible embarrassment or she simply felt awkward. But she thought it was nothing so she let it go.

"Thanks for the assurance Sharia." Tali said. Her voice also sounding little embarrassed.

"Anyway." Garrus then continued. "After we dealt with the Geth and entered the dig site, things went little better from that. And soon we reached Dr. T'Soni and she surely was in a tight situation." Garrus laughed. Sharia raised a questioning eyebrow at the turian.

"What Garrus tried to tell, that she was trapped in some Prothean bubble behind a energy shield that prevented us from entering." Tali quickly explained. "After quick look around, we used a mining laser to cut through. But that was also little stupid move. And before we knew the cave was collapsing and if that wasn't bad enough we had to deal with a krogan Battlemaster and his Geth minions."

"Damn. You surely went through a lot, just to get her." Sharia laughed a bit.

"You have no idea." Garrus sighted.

"And now you are repairing the Mako from all the beating it took?" Sharia asked, with humoring voice. Which seemed to annoy both Tali and Garrus a bit. "But what you say if try help you repairing it?" she quickly suggested, before either of them could give her a sharp remark.

Both of them looked at each other with considering looks, then back to Sharia. "Are you sure Sharia?" Garrus asked. "It's not exactly the same like repairing a rifle or just slapping some Omni-gel." he explained with serious tone.

"Maybe." Sharia shrugged. "But I might be a fast learner." she offered. "And don't forget I've lived long enough to understand at least some engineering." she added.

"Can't argue with that." Tali simply laughed. "Alright. Let's see what kind of simple task we should give you…"

* * *

The repairs had taken a while, but soon all the internal problems and damage was repaired. All though, this was for Sharia probably the most frustrating thing she had ever done. So far. And it surely was a dirty job also. She quickly had went back to her quarters to change and clean.

After that, Sharia wasn't quite sure what to do with her time, since there was no tell when they would reach their next destination. "_Maybe some meditation might do the trick._" she wondered. She then seated herself on the floor and crossed her legs, while raising her arms slightly and slowly started forming a Biotic ball above her hands.

But she wasn't far in the meditation when she was interrupted by her intercom. "_**Time to rise and shine.**_" Joker voice quickly drove her away from her meditation. "What is it?" she asked annoyed. "_**The Commander wishes you to be a part of the next mission.**_" he said. "_**Of course, if you are up to it.**_" he added, challengingly. "Tell her I'm on my way." Sharia said, ignoring Joker's last comment or challenge. She quickly got her armor and put it on and went for the elevator.

As the elevator decanted down, Sharia wondered what this mission was about. "_Well, there is no doubt it might have involve with Saren and the Geth._" but her further thoughts were have to be seen as the elevator had reached the Storage. There were Commander Juliana, Tali waiting for her. But what also surprise, was the fact that Doctor Liara T'Soni was also there. And geared up. But then again, she had promised to help them on their missions.

"So what's the problem Commander?" Sharia asked.

"We received a distress call from Asgard system." Juliana explained, sounding bit worried. "I'm not sure what it was about. But it had something to do with some human colony world called 'Terra Nova' and some kind of asteroid that was heading towards it." now she sounded really worried.

"There wasn't anything else in the distress call?" Sharia asked. Wondering, if this was just some kind of trap. "Nope. It was too static." Shepard sighted. Possibly having same thoughts as Sharia. "But we'll going check it out. And if it's a trap, we need to make sure that it's gone." she added in serious tone. "So, get your gun and helmet. You are going to need it."

She then turned to Tali. "I hope the Mako is good as it was before Therum?" Shepard asked Tali who nodded back. "Don't worry Commander, the Mako should be in it's finest again. All thought I can't say the same thing about the painting." Tali said, adding a quick joke to ease the small tension. That got a good laugh out of Commander. Even the socially awkward asari seemed to make a small chuckle.

"O.K! Everybody suit up and get ready!" Commander ordered. Sharia quickly took her beloved assault rifle and pistol that she had worn her whole C-Sec time. She even strapped the strange knife behind her back incase, she might need something to fight in a close combat.

But as she was putting the knife on her back, she felt like someone was watching her. Much to her surprise, the Commander was eyeing on her. Or rather the knife. "Is there something wrong Commander?" Sharia asked. Not liking the way Commander stared at the knife.

For a short while the Commander. When this whole thing was becoming too uncomfortable, Sharia snapped her fingers right in front of Commanders eyes. "Hey, Commander. Are you alright? Is there something wrong." she asked again.

"What? Oh, uuuh… sorry about that." Commander quickly apologized her foolishness. "That knife just brought up some… unpleasant memories from the past." she explained. Sounding little depressed.

"Ah, I understand." Sharia answered. Not knowing what to say, which made this whole thing little awkward. "If you like, I can leave it here." she suggested.

"No. It's fine." she quickly said. Then went to the Mako, leaving the dumbfounded Sharia. "_What was that about?_" Sharia thought. When the Commander had saw her knife, it looked like she had seen a ghost. But before she could ponder this further she heard Tali calling her from the Mako. "Sharia are you coming?"

"Yeah. Sorry." she took her helmet and joined the rest of the team. As they waited for the drop, Joker contacted them through their coms. "_**Commander, we are receiving a clear transmission from the asteroid. Want me to patch it through?**_"

"Sure."

For a moment there was nothing but static, but then they could clearly hear voice. A female voice talking trough the com. "_**Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?**_" and the voice sounded quite scared. While the transmission went on Sharia felt a strange tingling feeling on her stomach when the Mako shacked a bit. "Hang on Sharia. We're gonna jump! Hold on to something!" Tali warned, while trying to find something to hold on.

"… _**but I can't talk long.**_" the voice whispered. Then Sharia felt the same tingling feeling, only now stronger. "_Oh Goddess!_"she screamed in her mind while holding on. Waiting for the terrifying drop to be over. "_**Please. Shut down the fusion torches or we're all going to die.**_" then the transmission went dead and they've hit the surface of the asteroid.

"Now let's see what are up against." Shepard said, taking their first direction for the small structure before them.

* * *

**Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and FINALY we are going to have some action! Wohooo! And sorry for the long wait, but once again I was hit by a writers block. That usually happens when I'm not sure HOW to proceed, while I'm sure how things are going to happen.**

**And as you noticed, I'm also going to throw couple side quest's in this fic (since some of them are "important"). Either them being "full stories" or just some mentioning or maybe even in one-shots somewhere in the future. We might never know.**

**And (please) don't forget to comment/review! Constructive criticism is always welcome! While flames stay out. (unless they are part of constructive criticism)**

**Till next time, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**PS: Just making sure that you guys remember that this Juliana Shepard is the same one from my "A Perfect Gift" story.**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**Chapter 7**

**Asteroid X57**

_Mako. Asteroid X57_

Specter Juliana Shepard found herself to be quite nervous. The moment they had landed, she had felt the same feeling when The Skylian Blitz happened and also seeing Sharia carrying a batarian battle knife around didn't help much either. The very first moment they had drove close towards the small building, that seemed to be connected to a large torch the woman had told them about. Couple defensive turrets popped out from their covers and started firing missiles at them.

"Incoming missiles!" she heard Liara almost yelling right next to her. "I know!" she answered. "Tali! Man the cannon and take those turrets down!" she ordered. "Everybody else, hold on tight!"

"You better listen to her." Tali warned them, some humor in her voice. Before Sharia or Liara had any chances to ask what did Tali meant by that, the Mako took sudden turn on the right (that's what Sharia thought) and for a short moment both Sharia and Liara felt like their stomachs were thrown away and then quickly returned back. "GODDESS!" they both gasped.

But that wasn't enough as the Mako suddenly jumped! "_Goddess! If the missiles don't kill us then Commanders driving skills will!_" Sharia thought. She had also hard time to make sure that she wouldn't hit her head on top of the Mako. "Hang on tight!" Sharia heard Shepard yell, as the Mako suddenly started turning left and right.

After what had felt like eternity, all of the turrets were destroyed and Mako had been "parked" right in front of the building that seemed to be the place where to shut down the torch. Sharia and Liara felt like their legs might give up at any moment. "_Now I understand what Tali and Garrus meant with Commanders driving skills._" she thought, while trying to calm her fast beating heart.

"Never encountered anything like this in your long lived live?" Tali asked while leaving the turret controls. "Never." Sharia said, finally able to calm her heart rate. "Well not exactly anything like this." she corrected herself while picking up her helmet. After making sure their suits were sealed and be ready to leave the Mako. The first person exiting Mako was Juliana, armed with her pistol. Then came Sharia with her assault rifle ready, then Liara also armed with a pistol and finally Tali with her familiar shotgun. "Everybody be ready" Juliana warned. "We don't know what we are dealing here." she said.

"Could be Saren and his Geth?" Liara suggested.

"Probably." Sharia shrugged. "But then why would he attack this hunk of asteroid?" Sharia asked, as they entered the building front of them.

"Who knows." Tali said. Wondering the same thing.

Juliana was also wondering this. But all of those thoughts were forgotten in a moment when the door opened and inside the cargo hallway were sitting rather _familiar _looking aliens who she wouldn't forget anytime. "Batarians!" she spat, while the batarians gave them all nasty glares.

"Harak! Chekt! Chekt!" one of the batarians yelled and soon couple varrens were charging at them. To that both Liara and Sharia answered with powerful Biotic push which sent the varrens flying halfway of the hallway. "Grenade!" Juliana yelled. Everybody quickly went to cover as the small disk flew between the batarians. As soon as the disk was behind the batarians it exploded, draining completely batarians shields.

"Their shields are down!" Quickly Liara and Tali jumped out of their covers and fired their weapons at the batarians who tried to take cover. The first batarian was able to take quick cover behind the crates while his companion was loaded with bullet wounds.

While that was happening, Sharia had sneaked into the more open area of the cargo hallway and ambushed the waiting batarians and their varren. She took cover when her weapon had stated overheating. "_Okay, hurry now!_" she thought, while her heart beating fast as she waited for the attack.

No soon as she had taken cover the varrens attacked on both sides. "_Damn!_" she took quick and long step away from them as she used her Biotics on the left side varren, which flew right into it's batarian master, probably breaking his neck and killing him, since the batarian didn't seem to get up.

Sharia then gave the other varren a strong punch to it's maw with butt of her assault rifle. Breaking one of it's fangs. She also noticed that her gun have been quiet for a moment, which meant she could use it again.

She fired couple controlled shots at the beasts head and then quickly turned around seeing three batarians coming out of the corner. "Oh, son of a…" she quickly dropped herself on the floor as the bullets slammed against her shields. She then quickly leaned on the small crate between her and batarians. She heard while many of the batarians shots hit the crate. "She's hiding behind those crates you idiots! Use those grenades!" she heard the possible commanding officer yelling. "_Aawww crap!_"

As she quickly tried to get away from the crate she heard a big explosion behind her and could feel the small heat radiating from it. She turned to look at the spot where the three batarians had been standing for a moment, but now there was a giant black spot on the floor. She then looked behind her, seeing Tali with her Omni-tool activated.

"I guess that was your doing?" she asked with a small smile on her lips.

"Well of course. Who else did you expect?" she asked. And even if she was wearing a mask, Sharia could almost see a wide smile on the quarians lips. To that Sharia returned with bigger smile. "Thanks." she then said in which Tali nodded back. They both heard couple gun shots coming from other side of the hallway and soon it was quiet. Which told them that the fight was pretty much over. For now.

"Everybody alright?" they heard their Commanders voice. "Yeah." Sharia answered. "No suit rupture so far." Tali gave her answer.

"Good." Juliana nodded. "Then let's shut this torch down."

The group then started their search for the controls for the fusion torch. Thankfully the building wasn't too large and they soon found the console on the upper level and luckily there wasn't anything that might be a trap put by the batarians. Soon as the torch was shot down their comms were contacted by the same person before.

"_**I'm reading that the torch is offline.**_" she whispered. But also sounded like she was in a hurry. "_**Is that **_**you**_**? Can you hear me?**_"

"Yeah." Shepard answered. "But who are and what is exactly going on here?" she asked.

There was a moment of pause, like the person was probably thinking if she could trust them. But soon answered. "_**My name's Kate Bowman. I'm an engineer. I was part of a team that was assigned to bring this asteroid to Terra Nova.**_" the person, now identified as Kate explained.

"_**We were attacked yesterday, by batarian extremists. W… I've hiding ever since they arrived.**_" she said. With a quick chance in her voice. She was probably hiding with someone else also.

"What they could gain from this?" Juliana asked. But to tell the truth, she didn't care that much. Since it always looked like the batarians only wanted to take out many humans as possible and sell what was remained from the survivors to slavery. Like Elysium.

"_**I don't know. But if this asteroid isn't slowed, millions of people on Terra Nova are going to die.**_" Juliana and rest of her team changed shocked expression between each others. This was bad. "_**If I find anything I'll…**_" there was low sound in the background, like some had just forcefully opened a door. "_**I've got to go. Good luck.**_" then the console went dead.

"I think you know what we'll do next." Juliana said determined. Checking her pistol. "Ready Commander." Liara said. "Always." Sharia smirked also checking her assaul rifle. "Ready as ever." Tali said, taking out her shotgun.

Juliana then took the lead and started heading out. "One moment Commnader!" she glanced behind her, seeing Tali working with her Omni-tool. "What are you doing Tali?"

"Sharia suggested me to make sure that if the batarians would come back and tried to reactivate the fusion torches, we need to make sure they can't." Tali explained while typing her Omni-tool.

"Does it take long?" Juliana asked. Not wanting to waste much time while the entire lives of the colonist were at stake. "No at all. I'm actually almost done." Tali said with calm tone.

After couple more seconds, Tali was finished. "Alright, let's move." Juliana ordered. "And be ready if the batarians had sent reinforcements while we were up here." everybody were ready for any sorts of ambush. Or at least they hoped so, since there was no idea what might be batarians plans of ambush, if there was any.

But as they got near the door that would lead them back to the asteroids surface, they heard small noises that told them that, there was someone waiting for them on the other side of the wall. Juliana quickly took cover near the door, while telling Sharia, Tali and Liara with her hand sights to stay down and quiet.

She then peeked through seeing one quite nervous man walking around the small room armed with a simple pistol. She then sighted her squad members that it was alright as she stood up and went to meet the man. "Hey." she greeted. "Are you alrigh…" she didn't finis her sentence as the man jumped and quickly fired a shot at the Commander.

In response, Sharia and others were at their Commanders side quickly, weapons raised at the human. "Oh God!" he said frightfully, dropping his pistol. "I didn't mean to… I… I thought you were one of them." he defended himself. "Are you hurt." he then asked worriedly.

"What the hell were you think?" Juliana asked with raised voice. "Do I even look like a batarian?"

"N… no, but I…"

"Here is little reminder: batarians have four eyes. Humans two." she "lectured" the frightful man. "You think you can remember that?" she asked, now with little more calmed voice.

"I… I…" the man seemed to lost in his words.

"But since you asked, I'm fine." she reassured him. "It takes more than one shot to take me down." that seemed to calm him down as he was able to meet Commanders gaze.

"O… okay. And again, sorry. I was too afraid and realized too late that you were human. Never were much of a soldier material anyway." he said the last one almost like to himself.

Juliana then sighted at this. But not sounding frustrated. "I know you are little shaken off, but I'm here to help. I'm Commander Juliana Shepard with the Alliance." she introduced herself.

The man did the same. "Simon. Simon Atwell. Chief engineer on this rock."

"But we shouldn't waste time by talking." he suddenly said. "The batarians fired up the fusion torches. You've got to shot down rest of them before we hi Terra Nova!" he explained, almost hastily. "There are four million people down there Shepard. I- my family also." he lowered his head.

"I'm not good with math, what would exactly happen if the asteroid would hit the planet?" Juliana asked. But afraid to hear the answer. She knew that much already that from what she saw, if this asteroid would hit the planet. Lots of people would die. If not the entire colony.

"This asteroid is twenty-two kilometers long." Juliana could've swear that she heard Liara gasping at this. "Twice in size than the asteroid that wiped out Earths dinosaurs. It would be like millions of fusion bombs striking at once. Millions." Simon explained with grim tone. Juliana didn't where he was going.

"The heat of the blast…" for a moment Simon just shocked his head, probably from disbelieve. "A thousand kilometers away, clothes will ignite. There will be global wildfi…"

"I think I get the picture." Juliana interrupted by raising her hand. "But what I can't understand why would the batarians do this. They don't usually try to destroy an entire planet." she said. And mostly from experience. The batarians were usually simple pirates, slavers or even some form of terrorist. Not genocide maniacs "What they could gain from this kind of thing?" she then asked. Hoping of Simon could fill them somehow.

"I've have my share of stories about batarians. Slave rings, ranching people like animals. Pirate groups burning colonies to the ground." to that Juliana flinched visibly, from various memories. "But this is… Citadel Conventions forbid asteroid drops. I never thought batarians would go this far." he said with disbelieving voice. Juliana and everybody else were thinking the same thing. However Sharia's thoughts were somewhere different place. As this somewhat reminded her of something. "_But what? This all seems strangely familiar._"

Sharia was then the one who broke the uncomfortable silence. "I don't think you know anything about the one who is leading them? Like their leaders name or anything?" she asked.

"I… I heard some of them talking about someone named B…" Simon them went silent for a second. "Sorry, can't remember the name. I was still little shocked from the attack. But it started with 'B' and they seemed to be even afraid of the guy. That's all I know." Simon lowered his head from the shame that he couldn't help these people anymore.

While Simon had told them what he knew, none of them noticed how Sharia seemed to become little stiff. "_No. It can't be!_" she almost screamed in her head. This all just reminded her of something in the past. "_It just can't be!_"

"Batarians everywhere, and I need to shut down the torches." Juliana went through the "information" she got. "Anything else I should know?"

"One of the torches is surrounded by live blasting caps. We were set up to excavate when we arrived at Terra Nova." Simon told them. "And that tank of yours will set them off, so you need to go on foot. But be carefully, since they even explode if you get too close to them."

They all knew this wasn't going to be easy, but things looked little more difficult than before. "So, if we try to go through with the Mako we will be blown into pieces. Or even while trying to get through on foot. And I bet there will be small band of batarians waiting for us to cross. So things don't look that good for us." Tali commented.

"Can't you disable them" Liara asked.

"No. They are manually controlled. Sorry that I can't be anymore help."

"I think you've done enough Simon." Julinan comforted the man. "Alright people, lets move out!" she ordered.

"Commander! One more thing!" Simon cut in before they could leave. "I had a crew working off-site when the attack hit. I'm worried about them." he explained.

"I'll look for them while I can. But shutting down the torches is my priority." she explained.

"Yeah I know. Saving Terra Nova is more important than my team." he said. Sounding bit disappointed.

"I'll be going now. Try to find some place save." Juliana suggested.

"I'll try. Good luck out there Shepard." Juliana acknowledged by nodding her head.

They all then found themselves back to the Mako and read for the leave. "Commander. I'm picking up some kind small encampment right over." Liara suddenly pointed out as Shepard started the Mako. "I suggest we should check it out fast. And there seems to be some kind of transmitter close by also."

"Okay." she said. Hitting the accelerate into full speed. They soon reached their destination and soon found the small encampment. But also something else. "Must be one of Atwell's missing engineers." Tali said sadly. Juliana got out from the Mako for the moment, so she could see the body little better. "Engineer Mendel." she read from the body's tag while also examining it.

"_Shot right through the helmet. Execution style._" she thought grimly. While also having a bad feeling that the other engineers were probably also dead. "_But right now, I need to shut down these fusion torches._" she then got up and entered back to the Mako and took it towards the transmitter Liara mentioned to her.

* * *

Soon after they had visited the transmitter and fixed it, they were contacted by Kate Bowman again. But she didn't have anything useful right now, but for now it was just good to know that she was still alive.

"Oh Goddess, was that an unpleasant experience." Sharia breathed heavily. As she mentioned the jump Juliana had made when they had fixed the transmitter. "So are you saying that it was worse experience than when were dropped from the Normandy?" Tali almost laughed at this.

"Well, no!" Sharia said little embarrassed. Which let small chuckle out of Tali. But her mood quickly changed when she wanted to ask something from Sharia. "Hey Sharia are alright?" she asked.

Sharia looked at Tali confused. Not knowing what she meant by that. "What you mean?"

"Well, ever since we encountered this Simon, you seem to be little distracted." she explained.

But before she could answer, the Mako made sharp turn. "Tali man the turret again!" they heard Juliana's yell from the front of the Mako. "_Oh no! Here we go again!_" Sharia thought with dread as the Mako started maneuvering all around the place, but trying to avoid from entering the blasting cap field.

But thankfully for Sharia, her torment was soon over as the defensive turrets were again destroyed and Mako only suffered some minor damage. "Where are the batarians?" Tali wondered out loud. "You would think they try to make sure that no one reaches the console?"

"Maybe they are just waiting for us to leave the Mako so they can surprise attack us?" Sharia suggested.

Juliana was suddenly having a evil smile on her lips. "Then we'll give them our own surprise attack." she then went on about the plan. Since these batarians didn't seem to have any idea how many were inside the Mako, they could leave one of them behind. "… and when they least expect it. Sharia will open fire on them and makes sure that none of them will escape." she then looked at her team. "Understood?"

"Yes." they all answered.

"Do you think you can handle the turret Sharia?" she asked.

"I think I can manage." Sharia slightly shrugged.

"Good." Juliana then took Tali and Liara with her and started moving slowly towards the next fusion torch control. Not soon as they had taken couple steps inside the explosive field, batarians stormed through the door and started shooting at the intruders.

"_**Sharia, now!**_" Sharia heard Commanders voice in her helmets comms. As soon as she received her orders, she firstly fired a "heavy" round which took out couple batarians at once and then started picking them one by one. While Juliana and others moved closer to the console so they could shut down the field.

The batarians were soon defeated and the live blasting caps were deactivated. "_**Alright Sharia, it's save. You can bring the Mako here.**_" for a moment Sharia panicked. She never really drove with this kind of vehicle. And by judging from Commanders driving skills, driving this kind of vehicle might've been hard.

But she none the less, sited herself on the drivers seat and slowly started driving the Mako where the Commander waited for her. While she was driving the vehicle, she noticed that it wasn't that hard to control. At least when you were driving in short distance and slowly.

"Everybody ready for a new round?" Juliana asked as Sharia was out of the Mako. And once again her none-human squad answered with determination: "Ready!" all thought, there was something else in Sharia's voice that made Juliana little worried what the older asari was probably thinking. "_I just hope it doesn't affect the mission._" she hoped as they entered the building.

* * *

**There. Sorry again if it sucks a little. I had really hard time to figure out how write it the "right" way. And I have a feeling I did it in the "wrong" way. But I hope this was somewhat enjoyable chapter. And I guess you know what is coming on the next chapter, eh?**

**Don't forget to comment/review this chapter or story. And constructive criticism is always welcome. Flames NOT. Unless they are part of the constructive criticism.**

**So, till next time. THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


	8. Chapter 8

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**Chapter 8**

**Old Pains From The Past**

_Asteroid X57_

As expected, there were many batarians guarding the fusion torch's controls. But they weren't much of a challenge to Commander Shepard and her team. As they fought the batarians, it brought lot of bad memories from Skyllian Blitz.

This was almost like the whole all over again, except this time there weren't any pirates and slavers for taking. This time it looked more like genocide. As she had pointed out earlier and thought about this whole time, it didn't seem to make much sense.

But that wasn't the only thing she was worrying. The other seemed to be problem was Sharia, who simply ran straight at the batarians and started trashing them with her Biotics. It was sure that something was bothering the elderly asari's mind and she feared might endanger their mission. But, Juliana could see that Sharia wasn't exactly using her full Biotic potential.

Like she was preparing for something which might happen soon. But so far, she hadn't showed anything that could endanger their mission. But as the batarians were dealt with Sharia seemed to calm bit down, but the anger was still there.

Soon Juliana and others found themselves in the same looking room, with the fusion torch controls. "That should do it." she said as the lights on the console went out and the slight noise from the "engines" went dead. And as that happened, their comms activated and Kate was talking to them again.

"_**Are you there?**_" she asked. Sounding even more distressed. "_**You've got to hurry! You really pissed them off!**_" whatever the batarians were doing, wherever they were, had the woman really spooked. "_**Their leader's setting charges everywhere!**_" that answered one mystery. "_**I think, he is going to blow this whole facility!**_" the more Kate talked, more convinced Sharia became.

Then suddenly there was loud "BANG!", as someone burst into the room. "_**Get away form there!**_" a batarian voice was heard through the console. Juliana cursed silently their luck. "_**Don't shoot please!**_" they heard Kate beginning. They then heard as she was probably taken as hostage.

For a moment none of them heard anything, except some distant voice asking something. Probably wanting to know who was shutting down the torches. After another moment of silence their bodies suddenly tensed up as they heard firearm shot. There was the same voice again, this time little louder and angrier, but still not loud enough to hear.

Soon after the shot was heard another voice was heard through the console. "_**Get out of here and shut that damn thing off!**_" there was quick sound as somebody fired a shotgun round and then everything went quiet.

Sharia felt as if her whole being was set on fire. Everything came back to her, like someone left the door to her subconscious wide open and now they started flooding her conscious. Her whole body became completely tense and even started to shake. She needed to smash some batarians, or anything. Fast!

"Okay, now we need to hurry up and shut down that last torch!" Juliana ordered. Quickly glancing at Sharia, noticing how much the asari tried not to just explode right in front of them. As she started moving out, taking the lead she gave a gesture to Sharia which told her that she needed to talk about something.

"Is everything okay Sharia?" she asked. "You look like you are ready to tear this place apart." she commented.

Sharia knew that Commander was worried that she might jeopardize their mission, but she had told herself over and over again that it wouldn't affect it. Much. "Commander, you don't need to worry about it." she sighted little frustrated. "It won't affect our mission much." she repeated the same thing she had said before. But she knew the Commander had meant other way with her question, but she didn't exactly felt like sharing some dark sides of your past.

"That's not what I…"

"Look Commander, no disrespect. But I don't feel like sharing some of my personal history. At least not in this situation." she explained. But as she turned to look at the Commander, she saw rather strict commanding look in her eyes.

"I think you should since it seems you are familiar with this batarian." Juliana said, with a commanding tone. She then saw as Sharia visibly flinched. For a moment it looked like the former C-Sec officer was about to remain silent, gave a surrendering sigh. "Okay, but after we are back at the Mako." she said.

"Fine with me." Juliana said. It was fine, since she didn't exactly wanted to pressure Sharia since it already looked like it was something really personal.

Soon back at the Mako, the atmosphere wasn't exactly the brightest. And what had made it little more downer was that they've found another missing scientist. Dead. After they returned to the Mako, Sharia suddenly broke the silence. "His name is Balak." she said in depressed tone.

"He… was involved in this investigation me and Nethely, my partner that time, were trying to solve." she explained. While looking at her feet. "There were lot of people disappearing at the Citadel. After a while were able to stop the whole thing, but we never really go him." she said.

"Never was around. But after couple weeks, we stopped his little 'operation' he came to us and… killed Nethely." Sharia said grimly. "And I barely escaped." The Mako was completely silenced, except the running engine. Sharia continued staring at her feet, feeling vision slightly getting blurry. She quickly wiped the tears away before they could fall.

She suddenly felt someone's hand on her shoulder, looking up she noticed Tali had moved next to her, looking quite worried. "There is more to it, isn't it?" she asked. Sharia looked from Commander to Tali. "You could say so." she sighted.

The rest of the trip went silently, until they reached the third and finale torch and it's defense turrets activating, which meant trying to survive the Commanders various evades. Sharia suddenly felt Tali taking her hand and squeezing quite hard. "What's the matter?" she asked. A small smile forming to her lips. "I thought you've got used to it?"

Tali noticed what Sharia meant and quickly took her hand off of Sharia's. "I… I know. But I… I… was surprised." she stuttered, which Sharia found strangely cute. She then placed her hand on her shoulders. "It's okay." she said reassuringly. While also deciding to leave out the fact that she liked it when Tali had her hand warped around hers.

Soon, the turrets once again were destroyed and the group had a save walk towards their destination. And Sharia stared feeling the adrenaline raising again now that she was facing the batarians again. And this time it was higher, since she was sure whoever Balak sent, was going to be trouble.

But she would give some trouble to him. And made sure that he would speak about Balak. And soon as they entered, Sharia attacked with her massive Biotic throw, which sent almost every batarian and varren flying across the hallway at the wall. Giving Sharia and others a small chance of taking the first shots.

Sharia then directed her assault rifle towards two batarians that weren't affected by her Biotics and quickly fired a rapid fire, in which their shields flickered slightly and they also took cover as three varrens appeared behind the crates, from which the batarians took cover.

She raised her weapon, firing at the beasts while also slowly walking backwards. The closest Varren quickly leaped at Sharia, only to be shot in the head. Sharia too a glance and noticed Liara stading beside her. "Thanks!" she said over the racket, in which Liara answered with acknowledging nod. They both then returned to firefight, combining their Biotics throws, making them even more powerful.

But even while using her Biotics on the batarians, Sharia still felt the same rush going through her. After sending another batarian flying at the wall, she started moving towards the staircase.

She took quick glance at the staircase, for any batarians. "AAGH!" she and the batarian screamed when they both looked behind the corner. Both Sharia and the batarian took startled step backwards, as the batarians started shooting at her, she threw him with her Biotics right at the wall. Breaking his neck.

"_Damn it!_" she cursed, as two batarians suddenly attacked her from behind. But they both suddenly slammed on the floor, like someone had punched them hard on their backs.

"You okay Sharia?" Commander asked lowering her shotgun. While eyeing the asari, noticing how frustrated she was. "Yeah, thanks." she replied, not exactly eye contacting Commander. Walking back towards the staircase and prepared incase more batarians waited around the corner.

She glanced behind the corner again, but didn't see any batarians running down the stairs. "Is the coast clear?" Shepard asked. Sharia replied with a nod and moved in, while others followed behind. Before others were at the staircase, Sharia had simply rushed to upstairs. "Hold up Sharia!" she heard Shepards orders, but ignored.

But soon as she reached the upstairs, the next thing she knew was a butt of weapon hitting her right on her face. She felt her lips crack open and even tasted some of her own blood. "_Just my luck!_"

Before she could get up or to do anything the batarian suddenly flew like a bullet out of her view, followed quickly by a sound that told that the batarian had hit on something and soon heavy 'thud' was heard. "What the hell were you thinking, rushing like off like that?" Shepard asked in anger.

"Sorry Commander I…" Sharia mumbled.

Shepard took a deep breath before continuing. "You could've got yourself killed. Try to be more careful or else you might find yourself in the next port." she sighted. Sharia got up, but not giving even a glance at the Commander. "Sorry, it won't happen again Commander." she said, her voice a bit down.

"Okay." Shepard nodded approvingly. But the behavior the asari was giving then, was getting little frustrating. The moment they had found out that some batarian was attacking a hum controlled asteroid and was now driving it towards the human colony, possibly trying to kill everyone on the planet. Sharia had changed from her calm and somewhat cheerful person, into a serious and short tempered.

"Just be little more careful next time." she said, moving to the control room where the controls for the torch waited. As she shut down the final torch, everybody was expecting something to happen, either and ambush or the console activating and Balak yelling at them. But there was nothing.

That still didn't meant they dropped their guard. "Okay everybody, be ready for anything." Shepard ordered. While taking the lead. Liara coming right behind, next was Tali and finally Sharia keeping the rear.

But soon as they exited the staircase, they were greeted by more batarians. But the strange part was that, there only four batarians and two varrens to greet them. "Hold it!" the probable leader of the group said. "This doesn't have to end in…" the batarian didn't have much time to finish his sentence, when his face was met by a strong punch which pinned him to the ground, taking off couple of his sharp teeth's.

And was quickly facing a rifle barrel which pointed right between his four eyes. "Not a move or I'll make sure there is nothing left of you" Sharia growled dangerously while her Biotics furiously flaring. "Sharia! What the hell are you doing!" Shepard yelled. Sharia simply ignoring the Commanders yells, she was more occupied with her batarian "prisoner".

"Do… do as she says." he panted, while spitting some of blood and teeth out of his mouth. Not wanting to become a punching bag for this asari. Other batarians quickly lowered their guns, while ordering the varrens to stay still. But they were ready incase the asari tried something funny. But they were also concerned the bad air that was hanging around the asari.

"So there are two ways we can do this." Sharia said, almost sadistic like grin on her face. "Either the hard way, which might be not so good thing for you or your friends. Or the easy way. Which way it would be… Charn?" when she used his name, the batarians eyes went wide.

"How the hell did you know my name?" he gasped. This was getting rather scary for him.

Almost immediately he regretted his words as the asaris face twisted into a furious scowl. "So you don't remember me?" she asked dangerously. "Well, maybe this might brighten up your memory: Six years ago. C-Sec officers T'Sumi and Athelin interrupting Balaks slave trade and stealing one of his slave ships. Later he and his batarian lackeys come to them and their leaders decides to have some 'fun' before disposing them!" with every sentence Sharia said, her voice raised higher.

Even to a point in which Charn, Shepard and everybody could almost hear tearful sorrow in Sharia's voice. Charn slowly started realize what the asari was saying and that only made him even more afraid of the asari before him.

"Hey! Hey, listen! I… didn't do anything! I was only following orders! I didn't know what he was planning! Just like now!" he tried to defend himself.

"You could've disobeyed him!" Sharia yelled at Charns face. "How about that? If you don't want to work for him just leave!"

"L… look. It's not that easy." he stuttered. "Balak would skin me alive, slowly and later might sell my hide just out of spite!" that didn't seem to calm Sharia down, but also didn't make her angrier. Who was still glaring at Charn. "Look I know you are here to stop this asteroid from hitting that colony. That's fine by me." Charn said. Finally able to breath little more slowly.

"And I bet now that you know Balak is behind it, you are going after him, right?" he asked, looking at both Sharia and Juliana.

"Something like that. And that was part of our plan anyway." Juliana answered, much to her own and teams surprise. But that didn't meant Sharia was off the hook yet. This was getting out of hand.

"Good." Charn said, sounding relieved. And was now even more relieved that Sharia was getting off of him. "Listen, Balak is holed up in the main facility." he explained while getting up. "You'll going to need this." he then walked towards Juliana, but Sharia blocked his way, glaring.

"Sharia…" Juliana said patiently. Sharia turned her head at the Commander with questioning look, in which Juliana answered with nod. Sharia then slowly moved from Charns way. Charn then took out an OSD and gave it to the Commander. "What is it?" she asked, looking at it.

"It contains the codes you need to enter the facility." Charn explained. "So… can we go?" he asked. He then felt Sharias sharp gaze drilling right into back of his head and that made him regret again opening his mouth too soon.

"You can go." Shepard said, again giving Sharia a look to stand down, which she obliged much without any kinds of back talk. "But you better make sure that I won't never catch you on the human territory." she added a small threatening to her voice when mentioning the human territories. "Are we clear?"

"Crystal." Charn said, sounding quite relived. "Alright boys, we are getting off this rock." while the other batarians started to leave Charn then turned back to Shepard. "Don't underestimate Balak." he warned. "He's a mean bastard." he then exchanged short looks with Sharia. "In case you get a chance… give him one hell of beating." he said little quietly.

"You can count on it." she said, not showing much of emotion. Charn only nodded and then left with rest of his troops.

After the batarians had left, Sharia turned to face Commander, and like she suspected. The Commander was giving her quite glare. "I'm sorry Commander. I just couldn't…"

"Save it." she just said, which made Sharia flinch. Instead of expecting Commander Shepard yelling at her, she simply sounded really disappointed which usually wasn't a good sigh for her future. "Just, try to keep yourself checked. Or God help me I'm making sure that you are off from the Normandy if you keep doing these kinds of stunts."

"I know Commander." Sharia lowered her head. She felt so embarrassed, but that didn't exactly helped shake off the same burning feeling she felt still. "_Why is this SO damn difficult!_" she cursed herself. She knew that dealing with Balak wouldn't bring Nethely back, or in any sense serving any justice to her. But the need just to lay her hands on the batarians was just too great. She was right now emotionally confused how to think about this situation and that made her even madder.

As both Shepard and Liara stared leaving, Tali stopped and looked at Sharia. Not exactly knowing what to think about the older asari. In someway, she agreed with Juliana that Sharia was being completely reckless which might endanger the entire team and the operation. Maybe even the innocent by passers.

But, she could also see from the look of Sharias eyes and her body language that she was right now in big fight, which was taking place inside of her. And she wanted to help but didn't know how. All she could do right now was to show Sharia that she, and others were here to help her.

"Sharia, are you coming?"

The asari flinched again, but this time it looked like she was suddenly awakened from a bad dream. "Oh. Uuh… y… yeah." she stuttered.

"Don't, worry. I'm here for you if you need any help." she said, smile on her face. Which she hope Sharia could see.

"Thanks Tali." she smiled back. "I really appreciate it."

* * *

**Well, we are reaching the end. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and if you didn't sorry.**

**And also sorry for taking this long again, but I had another writers block and I also lost my laptop for a week before I could continue writing. Anyway, the next chapter will give you guys even more information about history between Sharia, Nethely and Balak.**

**And don't forget to comment/review either this chapter or story. And constructive criticism is always welcome. Flames, please go away. Unless they are part of constructive criticism…**

**So, till next time. THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


	9. Chapter 9

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**WARNING! Might contain some OOC and maybe some "fancy" dialog.**

**PS: Please, read my Authority Note at the end! I have something important to tell!**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**Chapter 9**

**Meeting Your Demons **

_Asteroid X57. Close to main facility._

The journey towards the main facility was one quiet and tense ride. And only got tenser when they found the third and finale engineer, dead of course. "It seems like they made sure no one survived." Liara had said, grimly. In her quite short live time, she had never seen this kind of cruelty. And it scared her.

While she knew and had heard about batarians, she never would have believed that she might witness it with her own eyes. And that's what scared her. But it also made her understand little bit better, what the Commander and probably Sharia felt. While sitting next to Commander, she could see the concentrated look Commander was having. A look that watched right to the past. A painful one probably.

And whatever Sharia went through, it also was something painful to remember. Just the way she had thrown herself at that batarian from anger and look she had given to him.

Suddenly the Mako stopped without warning. Liara quickly used her hands that she wouldn't hit her head on the vehicles desk. "What is it Commander?" she asked, as Sharia and Tali peeked their heads, looking at Commanders neck.

"Tali, take the gunner and have a little look around." she said. Not giving any kinds of eye contacting. "Alright Commander." she answered. Getting to the controls. "Your expecting trouble?" she asked. Her voice raised a bit so Juliana could hear her.

"Something like that." she said quietly, which Tali was barely to hear.

While Tali was getting the turret, Sharia moved from her place, closer to Juliana and Liara, so she might see what ever Commander seeing or just thinking what she might see.

After waiting for a minute, Sharia and everybody else soon heard Tali. "Not much saying." she said. "But it is sure that there are turrets hiding around the facility."

"Great. More turrets." Sharia sighted frustrated. To which Juliana and Liara agreed. After a while of thinking, Juliana started the Mako again. "Better get back to your seat." she said to Sharia. "Right." Sharia answered, returning back to her seat.

"Tali! Be ready to use the turret!" she commanded.

"You got it Commander!" Tali replied. Ready to fire. Sharia on the other hand took a good position and prepared herself for another ride of her live.

Soon as she had got a good position, the Mako sprinted into action with full speed and Sharia felt like being thrown against her seat. "_Here we go again!_"

As they were getting closer to the facility, just like Juliana had predicted, many turrets appeared right in front of them. But that wasn't exactly their only worry, as some rocket drones seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Tali!" Juliana yelled.

"Already on it Commander!" Mako's turret had almost immediately started firing at the drones when they appeared.

Tali tried her best to shoot at the small drones, but it wasn't that easy since the Commander tried to avoid the rockets that were fired at them. But Tali was still lucky enough to take out couple drones, before concentrating on the turrets. She fired one of the more powerful Mass Accelerator shots at one of the moving turrets dropping its shields.

She then tried to find another turret, but because the way Mako moved and got hit couple times by rockets it made things little hard. But thankfully she still had her luck, and managed to take out couple more drones that were foolish enough to appear right in front of her scope.

Tali then felt when one of the turret rockets hit right above them. And judging from the sound she and everybody else had heard, their shields had dropped. "Let's change tactics!" Commander said loudly turning to Make away from the turrets.

Tali turned the turret around while Juliana continued to drive away, from the battlefield. Tali on the other hand fired at the moving turrets now. She soon took out one of the moving turrets. "_One down, two more to go._" she thought.

Juliana then suddenly turned the Mako around and returning back to the facility, which possibly meant that shields seemed to have returned, or just slightly. "Keep it up Tali!" she heard Juliana's voice. "Only few more to go!" Tali felt her sense tense quite a bit. They were quite close to getting inside the facility and face this Balak. But she was slightly afraid that what they might inside the facility.

After what felt almost like an hour, rest of the turrets were destroyed and the Mako had couple new scratches on it's surface which made it look like it had been used for couple years already. "_Garrus and the technicians aren't going to like this._" Sharia thought as they exited the Mako and seeing the damaged vehicle.

They then moved inside, using the codes from the ODS Charn had given to them. But as they entered a small, what looked like receive room they noticed that it completely clear of bodies. But much to their surprise (and relieve). Only couple drops of blood here and there, but that was it. "_Another one of _those _hostage situations._" Sharia grunted.

As Juliana and others started moving towards the stairs in front of them, Shaira quickly stopped them. "Hold up Commander!" she quickly said, before the team, would step into a firefight.

"Something on your mind Sharia?" Commander asked, eyebrow raised as she turned around., facing the asari.

"Pretty much yes." she said. "I think I have a small idea what we might be facing." she said. With serious expression.

"Well tell us what you know." Commander said, crossing her arms.

* * *

This was just crazy. Balak was crazy. At first this all seemed like a simple good plan. Attack a human occupied asteroid, kill anyone that resisted and took the rest for slavery. But they didn't sign in for this!

Now they were pretty much destroying an entire planet! And all of those lives that lived there. Usually they wouldn't care about which human lives and dies. But they were right now talking about killing millions of people. That just didn't feel right. If they would succeed with their plan, they would be the most wanted in the entire Galaxy, and they didn't want that!

But they hadn't much of a choice. Balak was well known, from his twisted and sadistic ways and all those who usually denied him, were usually found couple hours later in the most horrible condition. Mostly _alive_.

And now, they were paying for their bosses madness. From what they've heard, some people had landed on this cursed asteroid and were attacking their troops while also shutting down the fusion torches. That had made Balak raging mad. More madder than usual.

"_I'm so deep in this shit, that I can't get back up._" the batarian thought grimly, while sighting. While guarding the giant hall, incase someone tried to escape. But while stared at the room, where the hostages were, he failed to notice a figure quickly moving at the stairs and quickly up. Where it disappeared behind the railing wall.

"Commander, I'm on the upper level." Sharia whispered into her comms. "And so far no problems_**.**_"

"_**Good Sharia. Just try not to draw much attention, I don't think we can come so fast to help you.**_" Shepard said. Sounding bit worried. She didn't exactly like this plan, since it had it's dangers. Like if the batarians leader would know what they were up to, it might be certain that he might just blow them all up from what they had heard from both Sharia and that other batarian Charn.

Sharia moved couple more steps, before activating her Omni-tool and checking the whereabouts of the bombs. If there were any. But as she suspected, there were. So far, there were only five bombs. "_And things are going to be any simple._" Sharia sighted inwardly. Now doubt the fact that when she had disabled either one or two bombs, the batarians would figure out what was going on.

"_Alright now. Let's see where those bombs exactly are._" Sharia thought, looking at her small holographic map. "_Ok. We got three bombs inside that medical room._" she looked at three dots that appeared in front of her and quickly glanced to through the window front of here, where she could see the first bomb.

"_And two more in this hall._" she couldn't help but groan a little. "_At least I can take down most of the bombs._" she thought thankfully.

She then took a slow glance at the end of the railing wall, through a railing. The hall had quite many batarians and varren guarding it and some combat drones, ready to be activated. This might become a tough fight. But right now, she needed to be quiet than loud, which she enjoyed just slightly more. "_Too bad I don't have to time for some serious hacking._"

She then took a deep breath and sprinted in crouching position, revealing herself for a moment. Her heart was beating really was as she made it to the other side, back to behind the railing wall. Luckily for her, none of the batarians didn't look up, but their varren became slightly nervous. She took couple seconds to collect and calm her breath before continuing towards the bomb.

As she made it the bomb, she activated her Onmi-tool and started working. The bomb wasn't anything simple. Thankfully. And like she suspected, the bomb was connected to a remote controller from where the timer kicked in and started ticking.

The timer wasn't no problem, now she just needed to disconnect the remote detonator and the bomb would be harmless. The remote controller was little more tricky, but no challenge. "So far, so good." Sharia said quietly to herself.

She then reached her comm. "Commander, I've disabled one of the bombs. Four more to go. Be ready, incase I might going to need some distraction." she called.

"_**Good work Sharia. We are still waiting here. Hurry it up if you can.**_" Juliana's voice said. "_**I'm starting to feeling little uncomfortable waiting here. And so are the others.**_" Sharia didn't exactly liked extra pressure on her, but at situations like these you didn't have lot of choice. Balak was already waiting for them, and soon would get impatient from waiting. And that might screw up their rescue operation.

"Roger that." she answered. Taking a pistol to her hands. "I'll try to get it done little faster. And just to let you know, there are two more bombs in the hall area, which means we might need to take them out in middle of a firefight."

"_**I heard you.**_" Juliana confirmed. "_**Just hurry.**_" she added, adding bit both irritation and humor in her voice. "Right." Sharia said, cutting the connection. She then slowly started moving towards the stairs, her pistol pointing at the stairs. Incase someone decides to peek.

As she got closer the stairs railing, she took her pistol away and took out her assault rifle. She then leaned slightly over the stairs railing.

"I can't still understand how Balak can deal with this kind of crap and let us go through the same thing!" a batarian guard whined.

"I know your pain."

Sharia quickly turned away from the railings edge. Preparing for the bickering guards.

"So, any idea how were are going to leave this crap behind so that we might get to live another day?" the first guard asked.

"I have no idea. Just have to figure out someth…" the batarian didn't finish his sentence when he was thrown off from the staircase right back to the floor.

"What the…" first batarian said, raising his assault rifle. But before he could fully press the trigger, he suddenly couldn't move at all. "_Must've used Stasis._" the batarian cursed.

The second batarian was getting up, but couldn't get up fast enough as Sharia's foot fell onto his chest, making him fall on the floor again. "Say good night." Sharia said, before punching the batarian with her Biotic enchanted punch. Knocking him unconscious. She then quickly got next to the bomb and activated her Omni-tool. "_Okay, now I need to work fast._"

Suddenly Sharia felt as something fast went right by next to her. Hitting the wall behind her. "Oh you got to be kidding me!" she grunted, while watching as every batarian guard started heading towards her location.

"Commander? Think you could do your thing right now?" she asked through her comm, slightly nervously. While using her Biotics to keep the varren away from her. Sharia didn't get any kind of answer from her comm, but from a sudden explosion from a grenade.

"Thanks Commander!" Sharia said. Throwing couple batarians away from the door. And returning her attention back to the bomb. "_**No problem Sharia!**_"

The attack from the Commander was good for Sharia as the batarians got confused as they got attacked from both front and behind. But that confusion didn't last quite long, but enough for Sharia to disable the second bomb. "_Alright, now for the third bomb._"

As she quickly moved towards the closed door, she created a powerful Singularity in front of the door. "_That should hold them off for a short time._" Sharia thought.

As she started working on the door, she noticed that there were hostages also inside the room. "_Of course._" Sharia thought, her slightly calmed anger for Balak again started re-emerging. "_Use the hostages as leverage incase things might turn bad._"

Soon the doors console made a small sound and the door opened. Frightening the hostages. "Don't shoot! Don't… wait, you are not a batarian." a female human said, getting over the shock that she and others thought the batarians were coming to finish the work.

"Don't worry, I'm here to rescue you all." Sharia reassured them, while lowering her assault rifle. But glanced behind her shoulder, incase someone decided to sneak behind her.

"Would you please give me some room?" Sharia asked, while pushing some of the hostages little away. She activated her Omni-tool again and started working.

* * *

Meanwhile, Juliana and others were dealing with the batarians. And it was one tough fight. While they had to take care of many batarians and their varren, there were also combat drones. But thanks to Tali's hacking skills, they were able to hold back batarians for a while, before the drones turned on them again.

Juliana ran towards two batarians who were shooting at Tali, who was once again trying to hack the drones. She threw one of her grenades at the first batarian, which explode right in front of him, killing him instantly. Juliana then took the other batarian that had been standing almost next towards the first batarian and fired couple shotgun rounds. Quickly penetrating his shields.

The batarian collapsed on the floor from the pain as the some of the bullets buried themselves into his body. He then felt as a butt of a shotgun hit him right under his jaw which caused him to fall down the stairs. Suddenly a batarian Shock Trooper flew right past her, she turned around seeing Liara's outstretched hand and her body glowing.

"Thanks Liara." Juliana said, Liara answering back with a nod and her lips forming a small appreciated smile. Juliana on the other hand suddenly changed her shotgun to pistol and started shooting at the batarians that were holding their position on the other side of the hall.

The hacked drones flew at their newly programmed targets. The batarians tried fight off their own drones, which went of nicely but that also distracted them for a moment from their real enemies. Soon rest of the batarians and their drones were dealt with and Juliana felt like she had gone through a marathon. But that wasn't like after the Skyllian Blitz.

"You humans." a voice growled, right from the end of the hall. And now Juliana could see this 'Balak' person. He certainly looked different from other batarians who usually had brownish skin color, but Balak had green-yellowish colored. "You are almost more trouble than you are worth."

Juliana didn't let the batarians threats affect her, since she had heard quite a lot from them in past and present and probably in the future. "Let the hostages go and I might let you live and maybe explain yourself to the Council" Juliana threatened the batarian leader. But having a strong feeling this Balak wouldn't give up without a fight.

"I don't answer to the Council! Or to _you_." Balak spited back. He quickly glanced at the direction where Sharia was right now, then returned back to Shepard. "I'm leaving this asteroid. If you try to stop me, I'll detonate these charges and your helper and her friends are all going to die." Shepard tried hard not to smirk. Apparently Balak doesn't know that they've already disabled over half of the charges. But she decided to see what the batarian had to say.

"I can't just let you go Balak. Not after what happened here." she said back to Balak. That seemed only to make Balak even more angrier.

"This is nothing! You humans have done _far _worse to the batarians!" he yelled back. "Because of you, we've been force to exile. Forced to survive on what we can scrounge up! All because of you humans!"

Shepard started to feel the old hatred for the batarians to rise up. The way he told those things, that the humans were to blame what happened to the batarians. It almost made her blood boil. "Don't you _dare _make it sound like you're the innocent party here." she said, with some venom in her voice. "You brought it upon yourselves." she added coldly.

"Really?" Balak asked. His voice almost cracking. "_You _invaded our space. Took our resources! And the Council simply brushed us off when we asked help from them!" Balak then took deep breath, possibly trying to calm himself down. "We were left to defend ourselves. But you humans were stronger than us."

Then suddenly Balak just seemed to "explode" with rage, which scared some of his troops and even the varren. "It was you! You and your kind are the only reason we're in this position!"

"And what does killing innocent people have to do with that!" Shepard yelled back.

"We had no other option!" Balak yelled.

"There is always another option." the more the batarian talked, the more Shepard felt the old hate from the events of Skyllian Blitz took over.

"It didn't matter at all." it looked like Balak was now simply ignoring Shepard and was lost into his own thoughts. "Sometimes you needed to get someone's attention. And that's why we attacked you at Elysium!" Shepard felt as something seemed to just snap inside of her. This was the batarian who had ordered the invasion of Elysium? Who was responsible for the death of many innocent people and her almost entire platoon.

"You attacked us on Elysium?" Shepard now was yelling from anger.

"_That's _why I'm doing this! You forced our hand!" Balak continued his ramblings. "But we both know that when someone forces your hand. Do we?" Balak said cryptically, which Commander was the only one who seemed to know what he meant.

Now it was Shepard's turn to take few quick calming breaths before she started talking. "_You _attacked us first. When we retaliated, you ran off to the Council, hoping for help." both Tali and Liara exchanged troubled looks. They've never seen their Commander like that. But Liara had already info about what the two were talking about.

"When you didn't get it, you hid. You've got no one to blame but yourselves." she said. Her voice tone quite dangerous.

"Enough!" Balak roared. "You couldn't possibly understand…"

As Shepard was listening Balak's rant, her communications suddenly beeped to live. "_**Commander!**_" Shepard suddenly heard Sharia's voice which made her almost jump. "_**I've disabled the bomb. The hostages are save.**_" Sharia said, to which Shepard was grateful. Suddenly she started to have quite good feeling about this situation. "_**Try to keep Balak busy. I'll take care of him.**_" then the comm went off.

Shepard didn't like the way Sharia said about dealing with Balak. But there was nothing she could do right now, especially if she didn't want to "blow her cover". "Now, if you want your friends to live, I suggest you step aside." Balak said, suddenly his Omni-tool flaring to live.

"_I guess he doesn't know._" Shepard thought. Which was good, now she could take down Balak and maybe capture him. "There is no way in hell I'm going let a terrorist like you go free." she said, her voice determent. "I won't let you hurt any other human live."

They way Balak looked at her, said that he wasn't fully expecting an answer like that. But he quickly brushed it off from his face. "You aren't any different!" he growled, punching his code to his Omni-tool, but soon the Omni-tool made a sound which turned Balak's irritated expression into a scowl.

"Oh hell…" he growled, turning his gaze from his Omni-tool at Shepard and her team. "Don't just stand there! Kill them!" he ordered, he then started running away from them as he started to take out his sniper. Juliana's first targets became the two varren that started running down the stairs at them. The first varren fell down quickly as shotgun rounds implanted themselves into its head. The other varren quickly fell, like its partner as many bullets from shotgun and pistol burried themselves into the beast.

While everybody were fighting, Sharia had sneaked out of the room while leaving Kate and the other hostages back to the room. As she returned back to the hall, the firefight was already in motion and Balak was so far nowhere to be seen.

Not until he suddenly dropped himself from the railing and then jumped another level down, where the elevator waited. No doubt the bastard tried to escape again. "Not this time Balak!" Sharia yelled over the firefight and it seemed to get the batarians attention.

Sharia could already tell from Balaks expression that she was the last person he expected. Well, that would be his last mistake. She immediately opened fire at Balak, who jumped out of the way, right into the elevator. "Damn it!" Sharia screamed. Quickly running at the elevator.

But the doors were already closed. Sharia started impatiently pushing the buttons so the elevator would return. "_Come on! Hurry up!_" then couple bullets hit her shields and she quickly used Lift, which caused the batarian from the railing, to rise in the air. All the way towards the roof.

Sharia then noticed the fourth bomb right front of her. She quickly glanced back to the wall console and tried again. This time she got answer and the elevator started ascending back up and while it was, she would quickly make this charge harmless. Which was now even more easier now that Balak had activated the timer, disabling it was quick.

She then reached for communications to tell Commander about disabling another bomb and that there was now only one left. But she quickly halted herself. If she would do that, it would probably mean she might loose Balak. And now that she was so close.

She didn't want to bring disappointment to the Commander, but after so many years of searching, she was this close. "_Sorry Commander._" she thought as she stepped into the elevator and started her descending. Not noticing someone was following her.

* * *

_Main Facility of Asteroid X57. Lower levels, Hangar._

How everything could've gone so bad? It was a simple, still effective plan. But then that so called _Hero _of Elysium had to arrive. "_A hero? More like Elysium's slaughterer._" Balak thought about the Commander. This human was no different. He had seen it himself on the planet of Elysium. But now _that _asari had to be on this mess also?

She was already real pain to him while he did some deals at Citadel and soon became a possible threat to him after she and her partner stopped his… exchange. "_And now she's here._" he thought. "_I so need to get out of here._" running faster towards the hangar bay, where his shuttle waited.

When the elevator had stopped, Sharia was greeted by four batarians. But she had quickly disposed them. First creating a Singularity between the two batarians who were standing right in front of her. While the Singularity sucked in its two victims, Sharia quickly created strong Biotic Barrier around herself. She then shot a full round at the batarian on her left, while running at the batarian on her right.

When she reached the batarian, she gave him a elbow tackle. She could feel her elbow hitting the shield and barely touch the batarians stomach. But that was enough for her as the batarian took couple shaky steps backwards.

She then heard as her assault rifle started beeping, telling her that it was overheating. She quickly used Stasis on the first batarian. The second batarian while tried to take some cover from Sharia's fire while also loosing his shields, while also firing at her.

Sharia on the other hand used Throw, throwing the batarian right at the wall which gave Sharia enough time to pull out her pistol and fire couple shots at the unshielded batarian. She then turned off the Stasis effect on the last batarian and punched him right into the face and firing her pistol. Soon the last batarian had fell on the floor, dead.

"Balak is getting desperate." Sharia said to herself, while putting her pistol back to its place. She needed to be fast if she wanted make it to Balak before he escapes again. So she sprinted towards the open hallway which would lead her to her target. As Sharia left the room, the elevator made a silent sound as it returned back from upper levels.

* * *

"Lets get our asses out of this forsaken rock!" Balak yelled as he reached the hanger where his last troops waited for him. "Where are the others?" one of the guards asked. "They are good as dead! Lets just get the hell out of here!" Balak was close to loose his patience.

"Alright, alright. Calm down." the batarian said. "_Great. He is really pissed._" the batarian dreaded. Seeing Balak this pissed meant usually trouble.

"I wouldn't say so!" a voice yelled behind them.

"WHAT!" Balak turned around, only to see a grenade flying towards them. "Take cover!" he yelled as he jumped out of the way.

The next thing Balak knew was that the grenade exploded, throwing his senses off the charts. His ears ringed, his sight was quite blurry and he found that he couldn't right now perfectly control his body, as a blue-purple figure loomed over him. "Get up!" it hissed. With some difficulty, Balak soon found himself standing. Because someone was holding him up.

"Never thought seeing me again?" the figure asked. For a while Balak didn't know what to say as his mind was still a mess, but his memory started slowly returning and his sight got little better.

"No." he simply said.

"I bet." Sharia said. Closing her eyes while small smirk formed on her lips. "But here I am. And this time I will make sure that you won't hurt anyone else!" Balak then felt when his lower jaw connected with something hard that threw him off balance.

Balak spat some blood out his mouth as he hit the floor hard. "You think this will make things different?" he asked between gasps.

"No." Sharia said. Taking couple steps closer. Her face now not betraying any kinds of emotion. "But I will make sure that the Galaxy will get rid off another person like you."

Balak let out a small chuckle when hearing Sharia's answer. "If you think you are better than me… you are wrong." he said. Showing Sharia a mocking smile. "You are just like me and others. A cold blooded killer." Balak then winced as he was kicked into the ribs. As the pain started to ease, he was able to look up. Seeing that now Sharia's face was full with rage. Good. He had hit the nerve.

"I'm not anything like you!" she screamed. "I don't raid planets and kidnap its people and sell them to slavery! I don't kill people just for the fun! And I especially don't try kill millions of people just to "send them a message" bullshit!" as she stopped screaming, her breathing had become fast.

"As I said." she said. Now her voice calm again. "I'm doing this for those people who's lives you destroyed." her hand suddenly started reaching something from her back. "For my partner…"

"Sharia!"

Sharia hadn't expected this. In fact, she didn't want any of them to see this. She wanted to do it herself in private so she didn't have fully live with the fact that Commander and Tali saw her like this.

"Tali!" Sharia said from both shock and surprise.

"What is going here? What are you doing?" Tali asked. Her voice sounding quite demanding.

For a moment Sharia was quiet, as she didn't know what to say. "… this is something I have to do Tali." she finally answered. But wanting to meet the quarian face, so she simply looked at the floor.

"By doing what he probably want you to do?" she asked. Her voice now sounding bit upset.

"Tali you don't understand…"

"No!" she interrupted Sharia loudly. "No. I don't understand." she said, now her voice getting softer tone. "But I know that killing him won't change things. And he needs to answer for what he has done."

"That's what I'm doing." Sharia said back. "And what's the point of imprisoning him anyway?" she asked, sounding now upset. "He would probably escape and starts this all over again!" she yelled, angrily pointing at Balak.

To that, Tali seemed to hesitate. She wasn't sure how to answer to that. And Sharia was somewhat right. If he would escape, that would mean he might attack another human colony, and this time might succeed with his plan. In a way she knew what to say, but it would just made her sound and look naive and probably stupid. But she didn't want to see Sharia turn into a murderer.

"You are probably right." she said with a sigh. But before Sharia could do anything Tali continued. "But that still doesn't give you the right to kill him. Let him face the trials where the final judgment can placed upon him." Tali found herself quite surprised just like Sharia.

She never would have thought talking like this. It felt little strange. But her trail of thought was quickly interrupted as Sharia suddenly cried out of pain as Balak kicked her on the ankle and then knee kicking her. And someone warping his arm around her throat as she felt someone placed a pistol barrel right next to her head.

"This has been an interesting meeting, but I'm afraid I have to go." Balak said. So much smug in his voice, while looking at kneeing Sharia. "But I guess I won't be leaving completely without any _entertainment_." he said while looking at Tali. While also knowing this would just piss Sharia more. "I've always wondered what quarians looked like out of their suits."

When Balak mentioned that, Sharia Biotics kicked in. "Don't even think about it!" Balak yelled. Now kicking Sharia on the stomach, who was now laying on the floor. "Or do you like to see your new friend ending up like your last one?" Balak asked with low toned voice. Something seemed click in Sharia's memory as her Biotic glow disappeared, but her hand turned into a full fists and she started shaking. And Tali could've sworn that she heard some sobbing.

"_Sharia._" she have never seen her like this. This didn't seem to be like Sharia at all. But her thoughts were again interrupted by Balak. "Now, be a good little asari bitch that you are. And stay still." he said. Enjoying every moment.

Sharia seemed only to shake even more. Even her knuckles had changed into slightly lighter color and couple drops of tears fell onto the floor. "_I'm… I'm sorry Tali._" she almost cried.

"Heh. Pathetic." Balak said as he pointed his pistol at the fallen asari. "This time I'll make sure that we won't see each other again." he watched as Sharia turned her head to look at him, straight into the eyes. "Embrace the eternity eh?" he asked with dirty smile. "Have a nice…"

"AAAAGH" the batarian that had Tali under control, suddenly started floating towards the roof. "What?" Balak yelled in disbelieve as Commander Shepard and her other asari companion stepped in.

This was enough for Sharia as she collected her strengths to get up. Which she did. Then punching twice shocked Balak straight into the mouth. Breaking many teeth. And then another punch on the right cheek, then left. And again, and again. Then delivering the finale blow by punching him under his chin. Making Balak fall over the floor.

As Balak looked he wouldn't get up, Sharia attacked him finale time. "SHARIA! STOP!" she heard both Shepard and Tali yell at her, but she ignored them. Drawing her knife, she decanted her hand where knife was held towards the batarian leaders heart.

"AAAAAAARHG!" a pained screamed seemed to take over the hangar as the blade sunk itself deep into Balak's flesh.

* * *

**Wow! Once again, I had NO idea that this chapter would be THIS long. Wow! I actually thought it would be more like 9-10 pages long anyway. And again, sorry if this chapter sucked somewhat (but I think the end went somewhat well eh?).**

**And you should probably know that on next weeks Monday, I'm off to army for 6 months, but unless they don't accept me. Since I'm not the lightest person (but I still like to swim, walk and roller skate). But I can leave for weekends, so I can somewhat update my stories. But again, if I'm "accepted", I'll be gone for 6 months.**

**Now, don't forget to comment/review this chapter or story. And constructive criticism is always welcome. Please no flames, unless they are part of constructive criticism.**

**Till next time, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


	10. Chapter 10

**I don't own Mass Effect or any other it's characters! They all belong to BioWare. I only own my OC's!**

**Mass Effect: Jumped In**

**WARNING! This chapter contains mentioning of rape and sexual assault and some other slightly adult situations. Read at your own risk!**

**Chapter 10**

**Sharia's Past**

_Asteroid X57. Hangar Bay._

Sharia panted really hard and slowly. Her fingers were still warped around the batarian knifes handle. She felt pain going through her entire body, the beating from Balak still hurt. There were small drops of sweat on her head. Everybody was completely silent. Shepard, Tali and Liara, all watching Sharia's every movement.

She then slowly took her hands off the knife and got up. She stared at the shocked expression the batarian was giving. "Consider this a payback from last time Balak." Sharia said. "Hope you are happy that I returned your knife back." she added the last bit more quietly. Tearing her gaze from the batarian terrorist.

Everybody changed glances between Sharia and Balak, who was miraculously alive. It had happened so fast. For a moment it looked like Sharia was going for the batarians heart. But in final seconds changed her direction and stabbed Balak right on his right shoulder.

Sharia then started slowly walking past Commander and others. Right towards the elevator. Her face seemed to be clear of any emotion. Only her eyes seemed to reflect what she was feeling. And she seemed to be somewhere between confused and angry.

"Commander. I…" she tried to say, but were interrupted.

"Is everybody alright?" a familiar voice asked. "I thought I heard someone yelling…" engineer Atwell stopped when seeing the exhausted Sharia, slightly shocked looking Liara and Tali (even though he couldn't see her face), slightly glaring and somewhat disappointed looking Commander and panting and injured Balak. "Oh." he said.

That seemed to be the cue for Sharia since she almost immediately sprinted towards the hallway and towards the elevator. Tali all of sudden turned to Juliana. "Commander. If I wonder if…"

"Go ahead Tali. I think she needs someone to talk with." Juliana said understanding. "But I'm going to have my own talk with her later." she added. Sounding quite strict which kind of scared Tali. "Of course Commander." Tali nodded. "And thanks." she then ran after Sharia, wanting to catch her before the elevator left her.

Sharia closed the elevator, the bodies of batarians were the only ones waiting. She stepped in the elevator, but instead of making it going upwards, back to the main room. She hit the controls and stopped the elevator. She then slammed one of her fists onto wall, while pressing her forehead against it, sobbing.

She just couldn't do it. After so many years of thinking getting back to Balak, and the opportunity finally had presented itself, she couldn't do it. And when Tali had showed up, that's where she felt like she was betraying her. And not just Tali, but also Commander and Nethely.

Why this suddenly became so hard! She already knew killing Balak wouldn't bring Nethely back. But at least he would pay for all those lives (including hers and Nethelys) he had ruined. But that didn't happen, but at least he was now captured and probably the Galaxy never had to see him again.

Sharias thoughts were interrupted when the elevator's doors opened and Tali stood before her, her Omni-tool activated. "Sharia…" Tali began shutting down her Omni-tool. "Is… is everything alright?" she asked, although she probably knew the answer.

"No. I'm not alright!" Sharia said. "My head is messed up and right now I don't know what's right or wrong." she breathed heavily. And she started feeling the tears coming back and tried to stop them, but in vain.

Tali continued staring at her. Feeling really bad for her. Sharia looked completely lost and she wasn't sure what to say. While she went after Sharia, she wasn't completely sure how to speak to her. But now seeing Sharia like this, Tali suddenly forgot what she had thought about saying to Sharia.

"I thought I made myself crystal clear that I would kill him and that would be it. That I would deal with what ever was going to be thrown at me!" she said, her voice still raised. It also seemed like Sharia was almost like talking to herself than to Tali. "But now that I came to this close, and I couldn't do it!" Tali remained quiet for a long time. While she was thinking what to say, the elevator doors soon closed and the elevator started ascend upwards.

"Listen Sharia… while I might not know how you feel." Sharia started raise her head, looking at Tali. As if saying "You sure as hell don't!" to her. "But I know that you can't beat yourself about what happened between yourself and Balak in past. And now."

"I've seen it before, with my father." she said. " You remember, when I told you about my family?" she asked, in which Sharia nodded, remembering their conversation about how Tali's father was affected by her mothers death.

How it seemed to have made him more distant from his family. And his daughter. Was the same thing happening to Sharia as well. Had the urge to kill Balak really drove her away from others? Like last time? This all was just too much for her right now. She needed time to think. Time to be alone.

"Tali… please. Don't say anything. Please." Sharia pleaded. Now looking away from Tali. "Right now, I want some time to think this over. I… I want to be alone right now." she said. Like she wasn't fully believing her own words.

"Are you sure?" Tali asked. Not sure if leaving Sharia right now alone was a good idea.

"Yeah." Sharia said.

The elevator soon stopped with a small sound and the doors opened, revealing the large hall where they had fought while ago. Sharia then saw two of the humans that were held as hostages, were now caring the bodies of the batarians away.

Sharia walked across the hall. As she walked up the stairs, she noticed the woman Kate Bowman sitting next to a table, her hand on her head. Suddenly, before she knew she had changed direction and started walking to the room where the woman was sitting right now.

"Hey." she said. Getting the woman's attention. "Is everything alright?" she asked. For a moment Kate just stared at Sharia with bland expression. Then turned to look back at the window. "Hanging I guess." she said with distant voice.

"And uuh, thanks from before."

"Huh?" Sharia asked. Not really following what Kate meant right now.

"For rescuing us." Kate said. Sharia on the other hand felt little stupid for forgetting that part. "You are welcome." Sharia said, with small smile on her lips. It felt little good to hear someone giving some compliments. For a moment Sharia wanted to stay there with Kate for a moment, but she didn't feel like invading the woman's privacy.

"Well…" she started awkwardly. "I hope you can get over this. From what happened today." Sharia said.

As she was about to leave, Kate suddenly stiffed a bit and started talking. "He killed him." that made Sharia stop.

"What?" she asked. Sounding bit shocked.

"That Balak." Kate said. Her tone was really sad. "He killed my brother Aaron, when we refused to tell him who was shutting down the torches." she explained.

"I'm… I'm sorry." Sharia said lowering her head. She felt a lump rising to her throat again for the fact that Balak had taken someone precious to someone from them again. But it was over finally. "_But with what price?_" she wondered. How many lives had he already destroyed?

"Don't be." Kate said. Giving Sharia a small, sad smile while also cutting Sharia from her thoughts.

"I believe we, he did the right thing." suddenly Kate let out a small chuckle which confused Sharia.

"He was the one who got me to this station. Said 'It would be an adventure'." Kate explained. Her voice cracking a bit. "He was always looking for a something exiting."

Kate suddenly felt someone patting her shoulder, she turned her head, seeing Sharia standing next to her. But not saying a word, but in way this was a moment where words weren't exactly enough.

"Thanks." Kate thanked quietly. "Could let me be alone for a moment?" Kate asked. Almost pleaded.

Sharia decided to not bother her anymore. This woman had gone through a lot and probably needed some alone time right now. "Of course." she said. Starting to grow the distance between them. She didn't feel like saying anything else for Kate, so she decided to walk quickly back to the Mako where she might get some more alone time.

Sharia then proceeded to walk past Tali, who this time didn't seem to follow and that seemed to disturb Sharia a bit. But she decided to shake that off, she wanted the herself right now.

* * *

_Asteroid X57. Inside Mako. Preparing for pick up._

Juliana felt frustrated. The fact that Balak wouldn't shut up when they hauled him inside one of the ships Juliana had carefully disabled and the way Sharia had been acting this whole mission had emerged many feelings inside of her. Feelings like frustration, disappointment and maybe even some anger. And for a good reason, Sharia could've put them all in danger. But that also reminded Juliana of herself from before. The way she had acted long ago.

But this day had it's good side. They were able to get Tali a new armor when they found out that Simon had one in storage. But it wasn't easy to tell him about the engineers who hadn't survived from the cruelty of batarians. Surprisingly he had took it little better than she had thought.

"_**Normandy closing in Commander. ETA in 4 minutes.**_" Joker called. Interrupted Juliana's trail of thought.

"Roger Joker." Juliana answered. She waited for a while and then activated Mako's jump packs as SSV Normandy flew over them and picked them up. There was a small jerk as the vehicle hit the deck.

Almost immediately, Sharia took off towards the elevator and her quarters before anyone could stop her. But Juliana decided to let her go, since she doubted that it wouldn't do Sharia any good if she started shouting at her in front of most of the crew. And she wanted to learn little more about her and Balak's past, since it seemed to be quite personal.

"Hey Shepard, what's crawling up with that asari's ass?" Wrex asked, while looking at both Juliana and the direction Sharia had ran. Juliana didn't answer that.

"That is quite personal Wrex." Garrus answered on behalf of Juliana.

The Battlemaster made a sound that seemed to be small laugh. "Well, just give something blow up and the problem solved." Wrex said. "She looked like she could tear a Thresher Maw into pieces." he commented while getting back to his original place. Juliana wasn't sure if the krogan was giving a compliment for Sharia, which was interesting since the krogan Battlemaster didn't usually give compliments to anyone. Only when he seemed to find some kind of reason for it.

But then Juliana turned to Garrus. "You know about Sharia and Balak?" she asked in a bit surprised and slightly outraged voice.

To that Garrus became quite uncomfortable. "Well, you could say so." he sighted. "That was a horrible day for Sharia. And also for C-Sec." Garrus explained. And was about to continue, but suddenly stopped. As it seemed like he was thinking what he was going to say. "But you should ask Sharia herself. _If _she wants to tell you." he explained. Then left Juliana and others, while started working on the Mako.

* * *

SSV Normandy. _Personal_ _quarters._

Sharia felt really tired. It felt like one of her long C-Sec guard duties or after doing a long case. But it wasn't like that now. And one thing might be sure that her time in this ship might not be so long. For a while now, she had felt bit bad for betraying Commanders trust like that. After all, they were on a mission to stop a rogue Specter who had army of Geth under his command.

And when Commander had offered her (sort of) to join up with her, she had thought it would be a long shot, but she might get a better chance of finding Balak. And she actually found him. And couldn't kill him. She sighted. Couple years of trying to find him and now she had, but she had left him live. For some reason that had made her feel somewhat better, which she wasn't sure if that made any kind of sense.

But either way, she had betrayed Commanders trust, by pursuing her own desire for revenge. And failed miserably. She sifted slightly on her bed, feeling bit cramped. She then heard the quarters doors opening and couple people entering her room.

"Sharia, we need to talk." she heard Commanders low toned voice.

"_I guess this is it._" she thought. "I guess." she sighted. Raising her head from her knees. She noticed that not only Commander was there, but Tali also and Dr. T'Soni for some reason. "_Probably only wanted to company the Commander._" Sharia thought.

"Do you have anything to explain yourself?" Commander asked. Sharia noticed that Commanders voice wasn't that strict like she had expected.

Sharia laid her head against her knees again, but only for a short time before raising it again, but not facing the Commander. "I guess not really…" she said, while looking more likely at Commanders feet than her face. "And you probably already know most of my reasons." she sighted.

Juliana looked at Sharia, noticing how she still looked quite lost. She wanted to understand what had exactly happened between Sharia and Balak, but it was also her duty as a Commander to make Sharia understand that she couldn't just pursue her own needs and probably jeopardize the mission.

"I think I got the picture Sharia." Shepard admitted. "But that still doesn't mean you can ran off like that!" Shepard was now raising her voice. "Going off like wouldn't only put the mission in jeopardy, but also everyone that is involved!"

"I knew about it, and tried my best to avoid it!" Sharia said. Her own voice started to rise, but she did her best not to outburst right in front of Commander. She was already in deep trouble. "And I wanted to pay Balak back for what he did to Nethely and me!"

Now Juliana was getting little frustrated. Sharia was becoming quite difficult when she couldn't even tell her the whole story. "That still give you the excuse to do something like that!" she said.

Her voice even more raised. "Damn it Sharia, why can't you just tell me what exactly happened!" she almost yelled.

"You can't expect me to understand you if you can't tell me!" Shepard said her voice tone still raised, but not so high like moments ago.

Sharia was completely still for a long time. For a moment it seemed like she had completely frozen in her place, her eyes seemed to look into nothingness. But she quickly came around when her eyes blinked couple times and mumbled something that no one couldn't heard her. "Sharia?" Tali asked, getting the asari's attention.

"He raped her…" Sharia said now more loudly. "And not only that… he raped her right in front of me for hours! And to add insult to injury, he was going to do the same thing for me!" Sharia's voice was getting louder from every breath she took and her eyes had started to water horribly.

"The bastard ordered his men to hold me still while he… _violated_ Nethely!" Sharia hissed. The sudden change of Sharia's mood was both surprise and little scary. Even though Sharia tried her best not to show much of emotion on her face, her eyes seemed to burn with hot fire enough to burn entire planet. "And I could see from his face how much he _enjoyed _it!" Slowly Sharia's Biotic fields started flare around her entire body which made Shepard and other back down a bit.

"Sharia! Get yourself together!" Shepard was now yelling.

That seemed to get Sharia around as her Biotic fields started to fade. "Sorry about that…" she mumbled. Sharia was now getting up and sited up from her previous position. "It's just that Nethely meant a big deal for me." Sharia said, still a bit shacked off. "She… she helped me out when my live was a wreck."

"What you mean?" Shepard asked. Tali also looked at Sharia, which showed both interest and worry.

Sharia took couple deep breaths before telling Commander and others about her past with Nethely. "Before I joined up with C-Sec, I was at some point part of a gang." she explained. She then let out a small chuckle when she saw Commanders and Talis surprised looks. "I guess you didn't expect that." she said.

"But yeah, I was a gang member a while ago and I'm not proud of it." she sighted. Sounding also ashamed. "It was that time at the Citadel that I kind of wanted some excitement. And before I knew it, I was part of this gang called 'Neblulas Arm'." Sharia told them. "And I don't know why decided to call themselves in such cheesy way." Sharia quickly added up.

"We weren't that much of a gang that caused that much trouble, we were more like freelancers. We took different kinds of jobs, well not most of the time anyway. And sometimes we… well, most of the time stole some small stores or put a small prank on someone. But it was mostly harmless." Sharia admitted. "But then, something changed."

"What you mean?" Tali asked this time.

"I'm not completely sure, but slowly the gang started doing even more and more daring things." Sharia explained. "We started doing more 'pranks' at some small politicians. But even those were getting press's attention. After we almost attempted the live of the Councilor Tevos's live." to that everybody gasped. That sounded like madness.

"That's were I tried to reason with them. But that didn't work out well." she sighted. "At first I thought I got through them. But that wasn't the case. And since I was still a naive Maiden, I believed I got through them. But that wasn't the case at all." she told them. "After they told me to wait and return later, they've already left." Sharia growled slightly.

"And that wasn't the only thing. First they had left my that time…" Sharia seemed to consider carefully her next choice of words. "friend, Atheria her name was, was left unconsciously on the floor. And then before I knew it, C-Sec rushed in with guns blazing." Sharia said, for some reason having small amusement in her voice. But it didn't shown in her face.

"Of course they didn't hit us since I quickly took cover. But I was already in bad trouble, and soon found myself inside a interrogation room." Sharia shacked her head. "After a long talk with various C-Sec officers and detectives, I found myself inside C-Sec cell."

"What about this Atheria?" Tali asked.

"From what I heard, she was sent all the way back to Thessia." strangely Liara showed much more interest, while others were little puzzled, why would they sent this asari all the way back to their homeworld, while Sharia stayed on the Citadel.

"Why did they send her all way back to our home planet?" Liara asked. Speaking for the first since she had wanted to join Juliana and Tali. The question seemed to confuse Sharia a bit.

"Uuuh… I'm not sure. From what I heard that she was some kind of criminal back there." she explained. "Why?"

"I'm not sure." Liara said. "But for some reason that name sounded familiar." she almost mumbled.

Everybody were once again quiet. Like they had forgotten the reason why they were there. But soon Sharia shocked herself again and continued.

"Anyway. After a day in the cell, they gave me two choices. Number one was taking community service for eight months to repay the damages I helped to caused." Sharia now looked really embarrassed, if not ashamed of herself. "And number two was got jail, where I could get out in couple years just from good behavior. So I took the community service of course."

"But that wasn't such an easy thing like I had imagined it. The places I went to work, the workers didn't want to have anything to do with me. And to make matters worse, I couldn't find a place to stay." she sighted. Shacking her head again.

"And that's where Nethely came in. She offered me a place to stay and you can just imagine my surprise, that a C-Sec detective offers a former criminal a place to stay." she chuckled. Remembering her own and Nethelys reaction. "And soon I found myself at Nethelys place and have lived there ever since." she explained. Slowly a sad smile forming on her lips.

"After the whole community service was finished and I was done with it, C-Sec finally let me go. But my live was already quite a mess, since no one wanted a someone like me to work with them, so I was facing a new problem and that was getting my life back to its feet." Sharia could still see that Tali was still sitting next to her. But it looked like she moved only slightly more closer. But she decided to ignore it.

"After Goddess knows how many failed attempt to get myself a job, Nethely once again brought a crazy idea for me. Joining with the C-Sec." at that point Sharia let out a small laugh, but there was also still the same hint of sadness. "I of course tolled her that she was mad. They would never let me join them. But again, only Goddess knows, she somehow got me a place at C-Sec Academy."

This time Sharias smile seemed to brighten up a little. "Those were some of my best times in my long live. After the whole gang thing, I thought I could never get my live back together. But with help of Nethely, my live was getting brighter."

"But those weird happenings weren't completely over. After I was graduated from the Academy, Nethely tolled me that she had became my partner. How did she even do it, I never wanted to know." she laughed. Now her entire being seemed to have pushed away the stress, sadness and confusion she had felt before. And for Tali and others, it was welcoming.

"And after that, my live had become quite simple, but I enjoyed it. Enjoyed it with all of my heart." but then Sharias mood quickly changed back to its original state. "But every lighter side just had to have its darker side." she sighted.

"And that was Balak?" Juliana asked.

"Yes." Sharia simply said.

"You said before that he was involved with some kind of case you and Nethely were doing. Something about people disappearing." Juliana said. Remembering their last conversation about this subject before.

"Yeah. It was about six years ago." Sharia tolled them. The unpleasant memories starting to surface again. "Various species were disappearing. Well, most of them were different kinds of people that no one missed. Well, not immediately anyway. After a while planning, me and Nethely decided to be kidnapped."

"So we went for undercover, and after couple days we got what we wanted and soon found ourselves inside a batarian ship." she explained. "From that point the harder part started, as we needed to clear the ship from hostiles. We tried our best not to kill _many _batarians, but that was easier said than done. But after almost an hour, we had cleared the ship from hostiles and were somewhat lucky to have some prisoners for interrogations."

"But the problems didn't stop there." Sharia said. "While we were trying to get the ship back to Citadel, a strange looking ship appeared out of nowhere. And it didn't even looked like a ship." she told them. "Either way, when we finally got the ship under control we quickly took the nearest Mass Relay and put lot of distance between us and that strange ship." From that point Sharia took a short break to collect herself. Since she was closing the events of her live which were one of her worst experiences.

"And then Balak came into picture?" Juliana asked in a soft tone, not trying to upset Sharia much.

"Yep." Sharia said blandly. While she seemed to look at nothing. "It happened in a middle of a night. Neither of us saw it coming. After we returned from a small "stress relieve" from one of Citadels bars, they were already waiting us at Nethelys apartment." Sharia started slowly shaking and her eyes started watering.

"When we entered the apartment, the first thing that almost greeted us was a banging pain on back of our heads. When I started woken up, first thing I noticed, I was only on my underwear and someone was holding on my arms. And then I saw Nethely..." now Sharia was pressing her hands on her knees really hard that her finger tips changed slowly into more paler color.

"Nethely was completely stripped from her cloths and Balak was right in front of us. And he started telling us how he would make us pay… and regret that we interrupted his dealings before he would dispose of us. And then…" now Sharia started sobbing, and Tali found herself holding the asari in her arms.

"It was like a nightmare… and the worst part was that I couldn't wake up! It was really happening!" Sharia now sobbed loudly. "I couldn't turn away, he wouldn't let me! All I could do was to watch. Watch the pain on her face and hear her screams!" now the tears were running loosely from the asari's eyes.

"I'm not sure what happened then…" Sharia said. Still sounding really upset. "All I could remember was all I could see for a moment was flash of bright light, and Balak and his goons were all over the room. And…" now it seemed to calm down a bit. "Then I ran, Nethely screaming me to get C-Sec, then Balak…"

That calmness seemed to be only for a short moment, since she started sobbing again. Maybe even more than before, and seemed to clung on Tali even tighter. "I think I get the picture." Juliana said with sympathetic voice.

"But that wasn't all." Sharia said, now seemed to get a little better grip of herself as she slowly pulled away from Tali's embrace, while giving her an quiet . "I don't what exactly happened, but for some reason my brain just… short circuited, I guess. Or that's what the doctors told me anyway." she said.

"What you mean your brains 'short circuited'?" Tali asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

"I'm not sure, but the doctors said that it was from the emotional stress I went through. So in other words, I was in some kind of a shock for about six months." she explained, in depressed tone. "I didn't respond to anything. I only ate and slept when I needed to. But then something changed, like I something told me to get a grip and start thing anew. Again."

Tali looked as Sharia was slowly returning from her depressed mood, she cursed own suit once again. While she had listened Sharia's story, she had her own share of tears behind her mask, but couldn't wipe them away. And when she had embraced Sharia, her stomach and heart had made couple flips.

"After that I had to got for some therapy so they could understand what had exactly happened. When I was finally released and able to return back to C-Sec." Sharia said. She then looked at the Commander. "Now you understand why I wanted get Balak so badly."

Juliana couldn't help but let out long, frustrated sigh. "I can't say that I don't understand you, because I understand and know what kind of hell you've been through." she told Sharia.

"What are you saying Commander?" Sharia asked, not daring to use Commanders real name. Since she felt that they weren't exactly in that good speaking terms.

"When the batarians attacked Elysium, my home colony. I was on a mission slightly away from the planet." Juliana started explaining. "And when were alerted that the batarian slavers had launched an invasion force on the planet, my objects changed quickly." Sharia could see that something was haunting the Commander, like with Balak had haunted her.

"At first when I arrived back to Elysium, tried my best to defend and evacuate the civilians off the damn thing." then Commanders mood changed into something that showed both sadness and regret.

"But things got a sudden turn when I heard the reports that my mother was killed in action when the batarians attacked. That set something off in me."

"I and my team then attacked right in the heart of batarian forces. It was a horrible battle. Me and my team didn't show any kinds of mercy." Juliana then shacked her head in shame. "I was fool enough make them believe that were doing it for the safety of Elysium, but really it was because of my personal revenge for the batarians for taking away my only family."

Juliana then let out another long sigh before she continued. "But after the fighting was over and batarians had been drove away, I found out later that mother was actually alive." Juliana shacked her head. "I simply felt horrible. And I've just been name "The Hero of Elysium". But I didn't feel like a hero at all. I felt more like a monster for what I've done" she said in sad tone. "So many good men and women died because of my personal vendetta."

"Much later I confronted my mother and told her what had really happened." she told them. Not noticing that Liara had gotten littler closer towards her. "It was little weird how she took it. She didn't yell at me, or told me that there was no excuse for what I've done." she explained.

"But instead she calmly, but still disapprovingly said that what I've done wasn't easily forgiven, but she understood my pain and even told me that she might done the same if our roles might've reversed." she told them. "Then she simply told me that now all we can do is to learn from our mistakes and then hugged me." she added some amusement in her voice when she mentioned her mother hugging her.

"Your mother sounds like an interesting person." Sharia said, her own voice also holding some amusement.

"You have no idea." Juliana let out a small chuckle. "She never was that kind of person that yelled often at people when she should. But listen now carefully Sharia." Juliana then started, having her commanding officer face, but her voice tone was still calm. "While I know little better about this thing between you and Balak, I hope you can leave those personal feelings aside and focus on our mission." she said.

Sharia seemed to think for a while before answering back to Commander. "I… I believe so." she said, suddenly feeling that she could do it this time. She then changed her uncertain attitude to more certain one. "I will try my best Commander. I won't let you down this time." she said. Fully confident.

"Good." Juliana nodded approvingly. "But I can't just let you out of this without some punishment." she told Sharia, who was now looking down. "I hope you can understand. So that's why can't leave _Normandy_ until I see it otherwise."

That seemed to raise Sharia's mood only slightly. It was fitting for her. "I understand Commander. And thank you for giving me a second chance!" she thanked Commander, with a smile to which Juliana answered back with her won smile.

"I guess I'll take my leave now then." she said. "I have a feeling you need some privacy right now." she told Sharia as she started heading towards the door.

"Commander." Tali suddenly talked. "Is it alright if I stay here for little longer?" she carefully asked.

Juliana turned to look at Tali. "I don't ask Sharia about that." she simply said.

Tali then turned to look at Sharia with a look that told her that, she wanted to spent sometime with Sharia. "Sure." she said. Smiling.

"Thanks Sharia." Tali thanked.

"I guess me and Liara are then off." Juliana said. Leaving Sharia and Tali alone.

After the two had left, the room was in awkward silence, since Tali didn't know what exactly say to Sharia. But Sharia seemed to save the situation. "So, you want to hear more of my experiences at C-Sec Academy?" she asked little awkwardly.

"Yes!" Tali said maybe little too bluntly. Which caused her to blush inside of her mask. This time she was thankful Sharia couldn't see her face.

But thankfully for her, Sharia seem to just ignore her response. "Well, there was this one time when this salarian tried to hit on me quite many times, until I decided to give him little lesson…" and so Sharia went on about her time at C-Sec Academy and with Nethely. She and Tali shared many good laughs, and Sharia felt really good. She never thought telling about her experiences with Nehtely would make her feel this good.

* * *

**Whew! This chapter was really hard. Lot of emotion and other things and I hope you noticed what I did with Shepard's background. Heh.**

**I really hope you guys liked this chapter and sorry if it sucked, I might try little later correct all of my spelling mistakes and other when I have little more time. So please, don't forget to comment/review either this chapter or the story. And the constructive criticism is always welcome. While now flames, please. Unless they are part of the constructive criticism.**

**Till next time, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!**


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